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Women of the Bible 

— ■ Consisting of — 

Biographical and Descriptive Sketches 

— ; of the — 

Representative and More Important Women of Old Testament 

and New Testament Times, as Viewed in the Light 

of our Present Day Civilization 



. /\^ By 

H^A. THOMPSON, D.D., LL.D. 
it 

Editor of "The United Brethren Review," Author of "Schools of the 
Prophets," 'Tower of the Invisible," "Our Bishops," etc. 



With an Introduction by 
REV. HENRIETTA G. MOORE 



ILLUSTRATED WITH ORIGINAL ENGRAVINGS 



'Not she with trait'rous kiss her Savior stung, 
Not she denied him with unholy tongue ; 
She, while apostles shrank, could danger brave, 
Last at the cross, and earliest at his grave." 

— Barrett, 



Press of 

U. B. PUBLISHING HOUSE 

Dayton, Ohio 



"BSs'n 






Copyrighted 1914, by 

H. A. THOMPSON 

All rights reserved 



/**> 



u 



JUL "9 1914 

©CIA3766K5 



ro 

■ » 



TO MY SISTERS 



MARTHA THOMPSON 

AND 

f LYDIA T. HORLACHER 



THE FORMER IN HEAVEN, THE LATTER YET ON EARTH. 

IS THIS 

TRIBUTE TO WOMEN 

MOST AFFECTIONATELY DEDICATED 



'And yet, dear heart, remembering thee, 

Am I not richer than of old? 
Safe in thy immortality, 

What change can reach the wealth I hold? 



And when the sunset gates unbar 
Shall I not see thee waiting stand, 

And white against the evening star, 
The welcome of thy beckoning hand?" 

— IV hit tier* 



iii 



"It has often seemed to the writer, that no greater service could be 
done to a large class of the community, than to reproduce the sacred nar- 
rative, under the aspects which it presents to an imaginative mind, with 
the applications of geographical, historical, and critical knowledge." 

— Harriet Beecher Stowe. 



K We shall come in the future to teach almost entirely by biography. 

We shall begin with the life which is most familiar to us, the life of 

Christ, and we shall more and more put before our children, the great 

examples of persons' lives, so that they shall have from the beginning, 

heroes as friends in their thoughts." 

— Dr. Jowctt. 



Iv 



jforetoorb 



IT is said the preface is the last part of the book that is written 
and this is usually done when the rest of the book is in type. 
I have word from the printer that this must be furnished at 
once. Why did I write this book? When I was in the midst of 
the work, I could easily have told, but can I now when the excite- 
ment of authorship has passed away? 

When I came into the Church of which I am at present a mem- 
ber, there was a religious paper published which made its weekly 
visits, but very little book literature. But books are just as neces- 
sary as papers. They meet wants that papers cannot meet. You 
want them on your center table to be taken up at intervals, to be 
turned over when not specially bus}- ; you want them for read- 
ing, for study, for inspiration; for the boys and girls to read on 
Sunday afternoons, or during the long winter evenings, when 
the doors are shut and the curtains down ; for fathers and mothers 
who want to interest their children in the best of all literature, the 
life stories of men and women who have done their part in the 
world's work. 

Some one has said that "what the boy reads (and it is just 
as true of girls) determines the fiber of the man. Ruskin, a boy 
of four years, lay on the floor on his stomach and read the Bible 
by the hour. Carlyle knew the scriptures from his mother's lips 
before he was able to read; and Gladstone knew the stories of 
Noah, Abraham, Jacob, and Joseph ere he knew the paths about 
his father's estate." What you want to appear in the after years 
of the young, must be gotten unto their minds when the avenues to 
knowledge are all open, and there is a keen desire for information. 

Having experienced this lack in my early years, it has been my 
hope, as far as a busy life would allow, to furnish something for 
the young people who should come after me, to quicken their love 
of their own church and make them more efficient workers in it. 
I could have done more perhaps had I been encouraged by Church 
authorities, but while I was anxious for a book literature for the 



Church, they felt the need of making money, so there seemed at 
times to be an impassable gulf between us. 

Then again my early life and training had not a little to do, 
maybe, in making me an earnest advocate for an equality of oppor- 
tunities for women as well as for men. My mother had as much 
to do in forming my life tendencies as had my father, and in fact 
she was the stronger character of the two. My father was 
reared under Quaker influences which made him more friendly 
to the advanced education of his boys than to that of his girls. In 
their case the spending of money for higher education did not 
seem a wise investment. When I was old enough to go to college 
I was helped to go ; my sister was kept at home, though anxious 
to go, and would have made as good and faithful a student as I 
could possibly be. This was the disappointment of her life and 
had no little influence in determining my life work. When it 
became my duty to manage a mixed college I determined to do 
what I could to fill up the ranks of students with a fair amount of 
girls. More than a few girls possess a college education because 
of the pressure I was enabled to bring upon fathers and mothers 
at home, who had not planned anything of that kind. 

When I had a little leisure to write, it would not be strange 
if I should study the Bible a little more closely, to see what the 
Creator had in mind when he placed humanity upon the earth, 
male and female. W mat I found there and in history and have 
learned from observation I have sought to place before the read- 
ing public and especially the women of the land. Others have 
written of the men of the Bible; the women have not been en- 
tirely neglected, but have not been given their exalted place. I 
have not written for the scholar or the critic, but for the common 
people with the hope that what these women have been and done, 
under the hindrances of a benighted world sentiment, may in- 
spire many other women, under the increased blessing of our 
Christian civilization, to do and dare much more for their sex, 
the Church and the race. 



vi 



Contents! 



OLD TESTAMENT WOMEN. 

Eye — the Mother of Mankind 1-20' 

Sarah — the Princess 21- 36 

Hagar — the Slave Wife 37- 52 

Rebekah — the Managing Woman 53- 70 

Rachel — the Beloved 71_ 92 

Miriam — the First Prophetess 93-114 

Ruth — the Young Widow . .115-136 

Deborah — the Pleroic Woman 137-158 

Jephtiiah's Daughter — the Devoted One 159-176 

Delilah — the Seductive 177-196 

The Witch of Endor — an Ancient Spiritualist 197-214 

Hannah — the Praying Mother 215-232 

Abigail — the Superior Wife 233-250 

Queen of Sheba — the Wise Woman 251-266 

Jezebel — the Heathen Queen 267-290 

The Shunammite — the Kind-hearted 291-308 

Queen Esther — the Successful Petitioner 309-328 

Judith — the Deliverer 329-340 

NEW TESTAMENT WOMEN. 

Elisabeth — the Mother of the Forerunner 341-354 

Mary — the Mother of Christ 355-384 

Anna — the Last Prophetess 385-394 

Herodias — the Wicked Mother. 395-410 

The Woman of Samaria — an Early Missionary 411-424 

Mary and Martha — the Bethany Sisters 425-442 

The Other Marys — Mary Magdalene 443.454 

Mary, Wife of Clopas 455-464 

Alary, Mother of John Mark 465-476 

Procula — the Wife of Pilate 477.490 

Lydia — the First European Convert 491-508 

Phoebe — an Early Deaconess 509-522 

The Women of To-day , 523-534 



LIST OF ILLUSTRATIONS. 

OLD TESTAMENT. 

Head of Eve. 

Hagar. 

Rebekah and Eliezer. 

Jacob and Rachel. 

Finding of Moses. 

Ruth and Naomi. 

Deborah. 

Jephthah's Daughter. 

Delilah and Samson. 

Saul and the Witch of Endor. 

Dedication of Samuel. 

Queen of Sheba Before Solomon. 

Ahab and Elijah. 

Elisha Raising Son of Shunammite. 

Esther Denouncing Haman. 

Judith. 

new testament. 

The Master. 

The Annunciation. 

Mater Purissima. 

St. John and Mary. 

Christ's Farewell to His Mother. 

Head of John the Baptist. 

Christ and the Samaritan Woman. 

Christ With Mary and Martha. 

Mary Magdalene. 

The Three Marys. 

Christ and the Three Marys. 

The Angel at the Tomb. 

Dream of Pilate's Wife. 

Roman Christians Reading Paul's Epistles. 

Paul and Lydia at the Riverside. 

Frances E. Willard. 

viii 






Introbuctton 



THE important part enacted by the women of the Bible has 
never been sufficiently accentuated in other records of 
those characters and deeds which shaped the destiny of 
those times. The reason of this neglect is undoubtedly because 
men have always been busy in the making and detailing of the 
history of their own worth and achievements, and women have 
been indolent in their acquiescence to the traditional idea of their 
inferiority and comfortable in their forbearance with an unnat- 
ural obedience to "keep silence" before men self-ordained to au- 
thority over them. But, in process of time, nature, in the mental 
as well as in the physical world, restores conditions to a happier 
and more harmonious state. In accordance therefore, with such 
evolution, the times are ripening, the history of the just recog- 
nition of woman's helps and hindrances to the progress of the 
race. Hence, it is not surprising that a good man should give to 
the people of the present and future the history on the pages of 
this book of those women who figured conspicuously in the events 
which took place in the days of the beginnings of peoples and 
institutions. He thus shows himself a man of the times obediently 
answering to the voice of the present. 

Of all women to be immortalized, of all women to whom an 
after-age should bring gratitude, are the women who had the 
personality and the greatness to rise above the ignorance and 
superstition evidenced in custom, and the oppression defined in 
law and make themselves famous as mothers, and needful and 
useful women in early political rule and in the early Christian 
ministry. Among the women of the Bible the majority are of that 
type, and the women of this day, in their advanced position 
should accord honor and praise to the biographer who has brought 
to light so many facts in their characters and lives, as to reveal 
the truth that woman is true to her nature and to her opportu- 
nities in every age, the helper of man and his equal, a human 

Ix 



quantity, a human number, a human being, possessed of human 
passions, desires, rights, duties and privileges. 

Only a man with a large sense of justice and a belief in human 
beings as human beings, would have given himself to such a task 
of research and delineation. His closing tribute to woman in com- 
paring her status in the past and her status secured under the 
influence and power of Christianity, is a piece of choice litera- 
ture, a bit of poetic prose, a chapter of incalculable value and 
inspiration. 

The religion of law taught the master to free in the seventh 
year the slave who had served him six years and to send him 
away, but if he had married during the six years of servitude, his 
wife and children should remain in bond to the master. The 
religion of law taught that if a man sold his daughter to be a maid- 
servant, she should not go out free in the seventh year as the 
men-servants did. Thus the religion of law was made to justify 
slavery, and the greater oppression and subjection of woman. 
But Doctor Thompson emphasizes the fact that the religion of 
Christ teaches that "there is neither Jew nor Greek, there is 
neither bond nor free, there is neither male nor female, for all 
are one in Him" — and that any law or teaching, any custom or 
prejudice, which separates men and women, which tends to make 
man a tyrant and woman a slave; any tradition or superstition, 
any legislation or legacy, which refers men and women to differ- 
ent spheres of thought and purpose, and classifies them upon 
different planes of soul and mind, contradicts the great work of 
Him who created this wonderful world for the two, and the two 
for this wonderful world, to live and grow, side by side, until 
the perfect whole is come. 

Christ was woman's truest, tenderest and greatest friend, and 
her advancement has been made proportionately with the spread 
and understanding of his gospel. It was a heathen idea of the 
earlv centuries that woman was made for the house. It is the 
Christian idea that she was made for the home, that man was 
made for the home is equally true. The two were created to make 
the home the most sacred spot on earth. But that does not imply 
confinement to the house neither for the woman nor the man. That 
idea originated in the harem of the East, in the day of the veiled 
slave, in the clay of the universal degradation and prostitution of 
woman. The idea still dung to such as Tertullian, who, in the 



X 



\ 



third century, as the rigid leader of the Christians, enforced the 
wearing of veils by all women, and declared that God had revealed 
to men just what the dimensions of the veil should be. But the 
Christ idea is lifting men and women to meet upon the same high 
level of liberty, unity and activity. 

_ The book has been written from an altitude of fair and broad- 
mindedness. It is profitable for all readers. It is history that 
entertains and instructs. It gives us a new acquaintance with the 
character and career of Deborah, who was so wise a ruler in an- 
cient Israel, and so potent a commander-in-chief of the army that 
she maintained the only forty years of peace mentioned in that 
nation that was war-swept so often. The song of Judge Deborah 
and her friend Barak after their great victory by the river 
Kishon, contains the most striking grandeur of verse and inscribes . 
her as a most remarkable woman of her time. What figures of 
speech, what eloquence of thanksgiving, what loftiness of poetry 
in such expressions as: "Lord, when thou wentest out of Seir, 
when thou marchedst out of the field of Edom, the earth trem- 
bled, and the heavens dropped, the clouds also dropped water." 
"Awake, awake, Deborah: awake, awake, utter a song; arise, 
Barak, and lead thy captivity captive." "They fought from heaven ; 
the stars in their courses fought against Sisera." 

We are glad to know all that the writer has learned of Ruth, 
whose decision to forsake her own country and her own people! 
and to live and die with her mother-in-law is the sublimity of 
duty and affection, of loyalty and constancy. And of young 
Esther, whose heroism manifested to the risking of the displeas- 
ure of her king and husband, and of her own life for the salva- 
tion of her imperiled people has no parallel in the annals of 
moral fortitude, patriotism and affection. Miriam, serving jointly 
with Moses and Aaron as a political leader, becomes a more 
conspicuous woman of her day as defined by the pen of this 
writer. Huldah, dwelling in the college at Jerusalem, the chief 
public counselor of the high-priest and the king, a preacher and 
a prophet herself, becomes a woman of more worth and inspira- 
tion to us from her history recorded herein. 

But the pure spiritual religion of Jesus commanded, encour- 
aged and inspired women to become especially active in the min- 
istry, and we are grateful for the enlarged 'record of Priscilla 
who was as much of a diakonos, apostle or evangelist as Aquila, 



XI 



and was more commended for her work than was Aquila. There is 
excellent data for believing that Priscilla, with Aquila's help, 
alone organized the Church of Rome. She was the instructor of 
\pollos, teaching him k 'the way of God more perfectly." Chris- 
tian women will be stimulated by the greater knowledge of what 
Phcebe did in the early ministry, she whom Paul warmly acknowl- 
edged as the servant or minister of the church at Cenchrea. And 
of \lary, Claudia, Julia and others commended of Paul as women 
who had distinguished themselves in apostolic work or in joint 
ministry with himself and others. 

May this book go forth on its mission of enlightenment and 
hasten the dav when justice shall be enthroned in human lives, 
and the souls of men and women shall be transfigured by the 
power of right, and all human voices shall be blended in the 
peace and good-will chorus of the angels, and immortal love 
become the inspiration of all humanity and the consummation of 

all divinity. 

Henrietta G. Moore. 

Springfield, Ohio. 



XI 1 



01X) Cessment 3KEomen 



€be===tfje Motytv of jHattfemfci 



"Grace was in all her steps, heaven in her eye 
In every gesture dignity and love." 

—Milton. 



"An angel, wandering out of heaven, 
And all too bright for Eden even, 
Once through the path of Paradise 

Made luminous the auroralair; 
And, walking in his awful guise, 

Met the Eternal Father there ; 
Who, when he saw the truant sprite, 
Smiled love through all those bowers of light. 
While deep within her tranced spell, 

Our Eden sire lay slumbering near, 
God saw, and said, 'It is not well 

For man alone to linger here.' 
Then took that angel by the hand, 

And with a kiss its brow he pressed, 
And whispering all his mild command, 

He laid it on the sleeper's breast; 
With earth enough to make it human, 
He chained its wings, and called it Woman. 
And if perchance some stains of rust 

Upon her pinions vet remain, 
Tis but the mark of God's own dust, 

The earth-mold of that Eden chain." 

— T, Buchanan Read. 



Cue— tfje JWottier of Mmkiriti 



WHATEVER men may think or say of the Bible account of 
man s origin, it is the only account of his being which is 

h h „'A,T g Wlt V he Wgh conce P tion of h^ value which 
is taught elsewhere in the same book. No other record of his 
origin is worthy of a being of such wonderful power and so grand 
a destiny. Apart from Scripture teachings, men have had no ade- 

"The CrZ^T ° - he rea ' dignUy be '° n « in g t0 their «^ure. 
Ihe Greeks, though inquisitive, aspiring and bold in their specu- 
lation, ascribed no glory to that nature from any divine enenrv 
concerned m forming it. Its origin confessedl/lay hid in he 

eitht haT K ^ ° f ^ '' 3S PIat ° Said ' ' T he human soul 

e ther had no beginning at all and never will have an end but 

tim™ ' J 6 ^ d haS bee "' ° r k h3d a beginni ^ - *— 
time ago in the common understanding of things man had 

sprung from the earth-an autochthon-and the^'raTshopper 

was has fitting badge. From rocks and trees and swampy pTace 

some had come, those born of the marsh having legs like serpents 

£Tp nda T M thb0rl !; Md K eVe " the ** themselves aTcord: 

KM ^ breath fr ° m the Same mothw - The 
first men had lived as insignificant emmets in the excavated earth 

or in the sunless depths of caverns, and Prometheus had fi S 

them^e^r ** "t^ Md *?** ° f ^ S ' h *« ™«e known 4 
them letters, numbers, and the function of memorv had also 
helped them to the ornaments of life " Y ' 

In distinction from this unnatural and unphilosophical account 
of man s origin, we turn to the Scripture record For a^es no" 

who'wa'r-^ ^ bC f? " ^ C °" rSe ° f P-paration or g 4e P one" 
« ho was to inhabit and have dominion over it! 

"Now heaven in all her glorv shone and roll'd 
Her motions, as the first great Mover's hand 
First wheeled their course; earth in her rich attire 
Consummate, lovely, smiled; air, water earth ' 

F~;- andof a Se W?S ^°7 n ' Was swu ™' was walked 
i requent , and ot the sixth dav yet rema ned • 

S he au yTdone^ ^ MaSter ™* the «* ' 



—Milton. 



4 Women of the Bible 

• \nd so the record states, "And God said, Let us make man in 
our own image, after our likeness : and let them have dominion 
over the fish of the sea, and over the fowl of the air, and over the 
cattle, and over all the earth, and ... so God created man 
in his own image, in the image of God created he him. _ 

This means that very high honor was put upon us in our 
creation We are but the creatures of an hour, without the single 
promise of to-morrow, and yet in some parts of our nature we bear 
the impress of our divine Creator. This can hardly he m the 
perpetuating of the human body, nor yet in his possession of 
reason, of thought, of invention, by which he is made a little lower 
than the angels, but must be in the moral attributes which he 
possesses. These may be made to reflect the character of the God 
who made us. By means of these we may come into a conscious 
knowledge of him, may be holy as he is holy, may learn to love 
him with something of the love which he bestowed on us. lo 
love God and to love mankind is to be like God, to bear the image 
of him in whose image the first Adam was made. We are not, 
then, the production of the earth, living for a few hours and then 
to perish forever like the beasts of the field about us We have 
royal blood in our veins, and are the children of the King of the 

universe 

Tust where this first man was located we do not know. It was 
in the warden of Eden, sometimes called Paradise, from a Persian 
word meaning park or garden. The word "garden," however, is 
to be understood in no such limited sense as we use the word 
to-day Men have anxiously inquired as to the exact location of 
the spot where the foot of the first man trod this earth, where the 
first woman appeared, where the first human marriage was con- 
summated, and the first child born ; that one spot where the 
animals were harmless and the air full of the richest and most 
invigorating perfumes ; that one lone spot where for a brief time 
perfect innocence and purity prevailed. The place has been 
variously located. It has been sought in "Asia, m Europe, m 
Africa, in America, in Tartary, on the banks of the Ganges in the 
Indies, in China, on the Island of Ceylon, in Armenia, Mesopo- 
tamia, Syria, Palestine. Ethiopia, the mountains of the moon, and 
the Arctic regions. Some place it on the rivers produced by the 
junction of the Euphrates and Tigris ; others place it in Armenia 



Eve — the Mother of Mankind 5 

between the sources of the four rivers, Euphrates, Tigris, Araxes, 
and Phasis." The opinion that places it in Armenia has obtained 
the most general support and seems nearest the truth. It is 
probable the changes which have occurred on the surface of the 
earth since that time have placed the spot beyond discovery or 
recognition. Except as a matter of sentiment, it is doubtful if the 
location of the place could be of any practical value. 

Wherever located, it must have been a delightful place, more 
interesting than any landscape which our earth could furnish to- 
day. In all probability here was some of the most magnificent 
scenery which the earth has ever exhibited, and that which excites 
the inquiries of an anxious mind was spread out before him. This 
first man had to dress the landscape and keep it, but he had plenty 
of time to study God through his works and had communion with 
him. The birds sang melodious songs in his ears, and the beasts 
of the field played about their ruler. He was the possessor of an 
immortal spirit ; more strictly speaking, he was an immortal spirit, 
he was a holy and therefore a happy being. There was free and 
uninterrupted communion between himself and his Maker. To 
those of us who live in this sin-cursed world, who see until our 
hearts are sick the oppressions that are done under the sun, who 
in order to get our daily bread are cut off from the opportunities 
of the sunshine and from the green fields, who are surrounded 
hourly by temptations to wrongdoing, who groan under the 
burden of our cares and our sins, this would seem to have been a 
blessed condition, and no doubt it was. There is a more delightful 
location awaiting God's children hereafter. 

In the face of all this wealth of beauty and enjoyment, the 
Lord said, "It is not good for man to be alone." That same 'God 
who has always been and still is planning for man's good, pre- 
pared to meet that want, but not by creating another man to keep 
him company, for when this was done one killed the other. As 
man had been created with powers and affections adapting him to 
social intercourse, God saw that it would not be conducive to his 
highest happiness, nor in keeping with the purpose of his creation, 
to keep him in solitude with none to share with him in the inter- 
change of thought and feeling. With the nature which Adam 
possessed and which we all possess, it did not seem possible for 
him, even in Eden, to have been perfectly happy if left in absolute 



5 Women of the Bible 

loneliness ; so, to meet this want, a suitable companion was pro- 
vided for him. The original word describing this being ismter- 
preted to mean "his contrast, reflected image, his other self/' To 
show him that of those things already created there was nothing 
suitable for his companionship, possibly the animals were made 
to pass before him and he gave them their names. All the males 
of the brute creation were supplied with suitable mates, but among 
all of them none had been found suitable for him. "All that he 
saw were fit to be his servants, none his companions. The same 
God that finds the want supplies it, not out of the earth which was 
the mother of man, not out of the inferior creatures which were 
the servants of man, but out of himself, for dearness, for equality. 
\s man knew not when he was made, so shall he not know when 
his other self is made out of him, that the comfort might be 
greater which was seen before it was expected." 

The Lord caused a deep sleep to come upon Adam. This may 
have been a kind of trance such as came upon the prophets when 
favored with visions and revelations from God. It is possible 
that in this condition without suffering any pain, he was conscious 
of the whole process of her formation. 

"Mine eyes he closed, but open kept the cell 
Of fancy, my internal sight ; by which, 
Abstract as in a trance, methought I saw 
Though sleeping where I lay, I saw the shape 
Still glorious before whom awake I stood; 
Who, stooping, opened my left side and took 
From thence a rib, with cordial spirits warm 
And life blood streaming fresh; wide was the wound 
But suddenly with flesh filled up and healed ; 
The rib he formed and fashioned with his hands; 
Under his forming hands a creature grew, 
Manlike but different sex, so lovely fair, 
That what seemed fair in all the world, seemed now 
Mean, or in her summed up, in her contained 
And in her looks ; which from that time infused 
Sweetness into my heart, unfelt before. 

Some have been disposed to cavil at this account of woman's 
creation, but there is nothing in the statements made to weaken 
our faith in revelation or in the wisdom of Him who builded a 
woman." It is the plain statement of the divine Word, and we see 
no good reason why it should not be received as written, borne 



Eve— the Mother of Mankind 7 

have been disposed to consider the account as allegorical, thereby 
trying to remove the record of some apparent difficulties; but if 
we may so treat this, why may not the whole story of creation be 
treated as allegorical ? How shall we determine what is allegor- 
ical and what real? What more difficulty in accepting as literal 
the creation of woman than the creation of man? Adam was 
formed of the dust of the earth, but he could as readily have been 
started into being by the fiat of the Almighty as by the process 
which was actually taken. God saw fit to take a different plan. 
So, in the case of the woman, he chose a method 'which should 
serve vividly to impress upon the minds of men and women their 
peculiarly intimate relations to each other. In other creatures 
there was no natural connection between the pairs in the very act 
of creation. In theirs the sexes were created independently of 
each other ; but in the man, the woman was to be of peculiar solem- 
nity and significance ; it was even to set forth as by a symbol the 
union between Christ and his Church." • 

Adam received with joy this new creation who was to be his 
intimate companion, "bone of his bone and flesh of his flesh." 

"Till Hymen brought his love delighted hour, 
There dwelt no joy in Eden's rosy bower; 
In vain the viewless seraph lingering there 
At starry midnight charmed the silent air; 
In vain the wild bird carolled on the steep' 
To hail the sun, slow wheeling from the deep; 
In vain to soothe the solitary shade 
Aerial notes in mingling measure plaved ; 
The summer wind that shook the spangled tree, 
The whispering wave, the murmuring of the bee; 
Still slowly passed the melancholy day. 
And still the stranger wot not where to stray; 
The world was sad. the garden was a wild, 
And man, the hermit, sighed— till woman smiled!" 

This new association was intended to be one of mutual tender- 
ness and endearment. With such a companion, his equal in origin 
and immortality, even Paradise itself must have taken on a new 
glory. In addition to new affections which now began to manifest 
themselves more rapidly, causing them to find enjoyment in each 
other's company and mutual appreciation, they we're both gifted 
with the power of understanding the wonderful world aboiit*them 
and the work which their Creator had just completed. "Sources of 



g Women of the Bible 

what is now termed wisdom, that of books and men, were indeed 
unknown to our first parents, nor did they need them. In the 
wonders of creation, the tree, the herb, the flower, the gurgling 
river the breezy winds— nay, from the mighty form of the largest 
beast to the structure of the tiniest leaf, the flow of the river to 
the globule of the dew which watered the face of the whole earth, 
there was enough to exalt and satisfy their mental powers, enough 
to excite emotions alike of wonder and admiration. Their com- 
munion with the angelic messengers of their benevolent Creator, 
their tidings of heaven and its hosts, must have excited the highest 
and ourest pleasures of the imagination and so diversified and 
lightened the mental exercise of wisdom, which the probable and 
vfsible objects of creation so continually call forth." 

How long this happy condition continued we do not know, but 
while it did last it must have exceeded anything of which we can 
now imagine. "Formed in the image of God with all their fac- 
ulties perfect and their appetites in subjection, undisturbed by care 
and as yet unassailed by temptation, they walked with God as 
a man walks with his friend and enjoyed communion with heaven 
though their abode was upon earth. There was no cloud upon 
their understanding, no undue bias on their will, nothing immod- 
erate in their affections." So far as external pleasures were 
concerned, they were surrounded by everything which could min- 
ister to their comfort. In his wisdom and justice he had endowed 
them with free will. While this brought with it very great pleas- 
ure and very high honor if properly used, it might be wrongfully 
directed and thus would be followed by great degradation. These 
created beings must be trained in habits of obedience by making 
right choices. "To have guarded him jealously from any tempta- 
tion to have surrounded him with naught but sources of pleasure 
and' enjoyment and so call forth only the grateful and adoring 
faculties of the spirit, was not according to that divine and perfect 
economv of love and justice which characterized the dealings of 
the Creator with his creatures. It was deeper, dearer love to 
permit man to win his immortality, his eternal innocence, than to 
bestow them on him unsought and therefore less valued. They 
could be guilty of no crime, in the world's parlance so termed. 
They were the sole possessors of the newly created earth, in daily 



Eve—the Mother of Mankind 9 

communion with their Creator, and therefore in neither idolatry 
blasphemy, Sabbath breaking, dishonoring of parents, murder' 
adultery, theft, false witness, or covetousness could they sin. God 
knew that all the crimes which might devastate the earth would 
spring- from one alone— disobedience— and therefore was it that 
his infinite wisdom ordained that the trial of man's love and faith 
and virtue should simply be obedience to his will." 

_ Now comes the saddest of all events in the life of this happy 
pair, an event which has been the forerunner and promoter of all 
the wretchedness, sorrow, and sin of the human race. We have 
no better explanation of the introduction of sin into the world, 
and to discredit this account involves us in multiplied contradic- 
tions, ; 'If any part of this narrative be matter-of-fact, no part of 
it is allegorical. If the man be allegorical, his paradise is an 
allegorical garden, the trees in it allegorical trees, the rivers that 
watered it allegorical rivers, and thus we may ascend to the very 
beginning of creation and conclude at last that the heavens are 
allegorical heavens and the earth an allegorical earth. Thus the 
whole history of creation will be an allegory of which the real 
subject is not disclosed, and in this absurdity the whole scheme 
of allegory ends." 

As Eve goes forth to enjoy life in the midst of the scenes by 
which she is surrounded, she finds the Creator has wonderfully 
prepared for her comfort. Of all the trees of that garden she may 
partake save one; if she eats of that tree, death will follow as the 
result. Whether at that stage in her history she had any well- 
defined conception of what that penalty meant, we do not know, 
but she knew it was penalty and therefore to be avoided. The 
tempter comes to her in the form of the serpent and tells her she 
shall not surely die. She had misunderstood the prohibition. 
"True indeed God had said it, but you cannot suppose he was 
really in earnest. He made use of this language merely as an 
expedient to keep you in awe. Do not give way to such unworthy 
thoughts of an infinitely kind and gracious being. Do not suppose 
that for so trivial an offense as eating a little fruit, he will doom 
you to perdition and thus suddenly destroy the most excellent work 
of his hands." He even goes further by telling her that "her eyes 
will be opened." Eve saw that the fruit was pleasant to the eyes, 



lO Women of the Bible 

and if the words of the serpent could be believed, it would give 
her a knowledge she did not possess before. In an evil hour she 
yielded to the temptation and did eat. 

"So saying, her rash hand in evil hour 
Forth reaching to the fruit, she plucked, she ate; 
Earth felt the wound, and nature from her seat 
Sighing through all her works gave signs of woe, 
That all was lost. Back to the thicket slunk 
The guilty serpent and weh might ; for Eve 
Intent now wholly on her taste, naught else 
Regarded; such delight till then, as seemed 
In fruit, she never tasted; whether true 
Or fancied so, through expectation high n 

Of knowledge; nor was godhead from her thoughts. 

Not only did Eve thus become the first human sinner, but she 
in turn became the first human tempter. She proffers the fruit to 
her husband and induces him to eat. He saw that his wife had 
fallen and now, as her hand beckons him down the same abyss, he 
yields and they are both sinners. To what extent he was influ- 
enced by her and to what extent he did this of his own accord, we 
can only conjecture. The record seems to indicate that she gave 
to her husband with the hope and intent that he should participate 
with her in her crime. In Genesis 3 : 17, he is apparently con- 
demned for yielding to the entreaties of his wife. So Paul 
(I. Timothy 2 : 14) says, "Adam was not deceived, but the woman, 
being deceived, was in the transgression." Milton accepts the 
same thought: 

"She gave him of that fair, enticing fruit 
With liberal hand; he scrupled not to eat 
Against his better knowledge, not deceived 
But fondly overcome with female charms. 
Earth trembled from her entrails, as again 
In pangs ; and nature gave a second groan ; 
Sky lowered and muttering thunder, some sad drops 
Wept, at completing of the mortal sin 
Original." 

And yet, with regard to both, it was their own free, uncon- 
strained act. There was no compulsion in the case. No one 
could be blamed for this sad act but themselves, and there was 
no apology that could be made for them. By this free act cf 




HEAD OF EYE 



Eve — the Mother of Mankind 11 

theirs they lifted the gates which have let loose a flood of misery 
on our world. It is not in the power of the human mind to 
measure the untold evils which may trace their origin to this 
fountainhead. Let us not blame them too severely unless we are 
sure we could have done better under the same circumstances. 

Their eyes were opened, as are the eyes of every one who for 
the first time is conscious of wrongdoing. They now have a per- 
ception of guilt. They now have an extended knowledge of good 
and evil. The voice of the Lord does not now come to them with 
the pleasing sound it did before. The presence which before had 
filled them with joy now produces dismay. They flee into the 
dark recesses of the garden with the hope of eluding the eye of 
him against whom they had sinned. But there is no place where 
the trembling sinner can conceal his person or his crimes from 
that all-seeing eye. Adam is not willing to confess his guilt, nor 
yet to deny it ; so he puts the blame on the woman whom God had 
given him. The woman, following the example of her husband, 
blames the serpent for beguiling, and in a sense her accusation is 
true. These excuses, however, for they were nothing else, could 
not ward off the punishment 'which must follow. The sorrows of 
the woman shall be multiplied and she shall be in subjection to 
her husband. This was not a new enactment, but prophecy of the 
treatment which should come to her. The earth was to be cursed 
for man's sake, and with painful and exhausting labor should he 
eat the fruit of it. 

When Eve was first brought to Adam, he named her Isha, the 
equivalent for woman; as ish means man, isha more properly 
means a female man. As she was a partaker of his nature she 
should in effect be called by his name. Enmity was to be put 
between her seed and the serpent's seed. In view of this, prob- 
ably, Adam calls her Havah, meaning that she was to be the 
mother of all who should be born; or it may have been because 
she was to be the mother of a seed who should bruise the serpent's 
head, and thus by being the progenitor of Christ, would be the 
mother of all who should have spiritual life through him. Presi- 
dent Edwards says of this change of name: 

"It is remarkable that Adam had before given his wife another 
name, Isha, when she was first created and brought to him ; but 
now, that on this occasion of the fall and what God had said upon 



12 Women of the Bible 

it he changes her name and gives her a new name, Havah, life 
because she was to be the mother of every one that has life which 
would be exceedingly strange and unaccountable if all that he 
meant was that she was to be the mother of mankind. It is most 
probable that Adam would give Eve her name from that which 
was her greatest honor, since it is evident that he had respect to 
her honor in giving her this name. The name itself Life is 
honorable, and that which he mentions concerning her being the 
mother of every living one, is doubtless something he had respec 
to as honorable to her. Since he changed her name from regard 
to her honor, it is most likely he would signify it in that way which 
was her peculiar honor ; but that was the most honorable of any- 
thing that ever happened or that ever would happen concerning 
her— that God said she should be the mother of that seed that 
should bruise the serpent's head. This was the greatest honor 
that God had conferred on her." 

Although Eve had fallen from her high estate of innocence, 
and had experienced in her own nature the consciousness of 
wrongdoing, Eden was still her home. But now, for some good 
reason, this pair are driven out of Paradise and prohibited from 
returning. Adam must go forth to till the ground from which he 
was taken. Remembering what a home is to every woman s heart, 
it must have been a sad hour when Eve is turned out and the 
gates closed against her; and yet it was her own act that sent her 
out No more shall she eat its luscious fruits, or look on its 
crorgeous flowers, or breathe its perfumed atmosphere, or enjoy 
its angelic associations. Well may that sorrowful, exiled woman, 
mother of us all, exclaim as she casts a last, lingering look at her 
former happy home, as she goes out with an agonizing heart into 
an untried world : 

"O unexpected stroke, worse than of death ! 
Must I leave thee Paradise?— this land, 
This native soil, these happy walks and shades, 
Fit haunt of gods, where I had hoped to spend 
Quiet, though sad, the respite of that day 
That must be mortal to us both. O flowers, 
That never will in other climate grow. 
My early visitation and my last 
At even, which I bred up with tender hand 
From the first opening bud, and gave ye names, 
Who now shall rear you to the sun, or rank 



Eve — the Mother of Mankind 13 

Your tribes, and water from the ambrosial fount? 

Thee lastly, nuptial bower, by me adorned 

.With what to sight or smel! was sweet, from thee 

How shall I part, and whither wander up and down 

Into a lower world, to this obscure 

And wild? how shall I breathe in other air 

Less pure, accustomed to immortal fruits?" 

"They, looking back, all the eastern side beheld . 
Of Paradise, so late their happy seat, 
Waved over by that flaming brand; the gate 
With dreadful faces thronged and fiery arms. 
Some natural tears they dropt, but wiped them soon; 
The world was all before them, where to choose 
Their place of rest, and Providence their guide. 
They, hand in hand, with wandering steps and slow 
Through Eden took their solitary way." 

This unhappy pair are now out of Eden. It would be a matter 
of great gratification if we could have had a few words telling us 
something of their experiences during the first years after the fall, 
but the record is silent. We cannot but be interested in their 
history and question ourselves concerning their welfare. When 
judgment was pronounced upon them, they did not seem to be in 
a very repentant state of mind, and had they so remained, there 
would not have been much hope for them in this life nor 'in the 
one to come. Physical death came into the world by their trans- 
gression, yet this part of their penalty is not at once inflicted. The 
pledge, that the seed of the woman shall bruise the serpent's head 
intimates that a plan has been devised whereby their sin shall not 
work utter ruin. This pair might at once have been cut off but 
would not such an act have rendered God's work of no effect? 
They are still to live for some time and replenish the earth with 
inhabitants, who, although born with evil natures, may yet escape 
everlasting destruction. Is it not probable that, as the days and 
years passed by, and they had time to meditate on their sad mis- 
take that they did finally repent, and that He, who made clothing 
of the skms of beasts and covered them therewith, instead of the 
twisted leaves which they had themselves made, did hear their cry 
of anguish and comfort their bereaved hearts ? And if the flaming 
sword kept them out of the earthly Paradise, may we not have 
good reason to believe that when the allotted time of their earthly 
pilgrimage ended, the pearly gates were opened to them and they 



14 Women of the Bible 

were admitted, as the rest of us shall be, as repentant sinners 
saved by a Redeemer's blood ? The poets seem to have looked in 
this direction. Adam, after some converse with Eve, says : 

"We need not fear 
To pass commodiously this life, sustained 
Bv Him with many comforts, till we end 
In dust our final rest and native home. 
What better can we do than, to the place 
Repairing where he judged us, prostrate tall 
Before him reverent, and there confess 
Humbly our faults and pardon beg, with tears _ 
Watering the ground and with our sighs the air 
Frequenting, sent from hearts contrite in sign 
Of sorrow unfeigned and humiliation meek.' 
Undoubtedly he will relent and turn 
From his displeasure; in whose look serene, 
When angry most he seemed and most severe, 
What else but favor, grace, and mercy shone.' 

It must have been a number of years after their expulsion 
from Eden before a child came to gladden this household These 
would be years of toil and trial, of sadness and regret, and let us 
hope, of peace and communion with the Most High. With the 
earth full of people and the relation of mother and child well 
understood, the advent of a child into a family, and especially the 
first child, is an event which makes the mother s heart beater jqy. 
How much more would such an event, the birth of the first human 
child bring strange feelings to Eve's heart ! It was ah a strange 
nwst'erv to her. This was not only the first to her, but the first 
child that had been born into the world, the first that had nestled 
upon a mother's heart, and the first that had felt the warmth of a 
mother's affection. It is not strange that she should attach great 
uportance to such an event. As years had elapsed since their 
expulsion from the garden, they may have doubted whefter any 
children should be given them, and have been perplexed as .to .how 
God's promise would be fulfilled. It is strange Eve did not name 
this first son for her husband, the only man she had ever known, 
but in her joy over her first-born she exclaims, I have gotten a 
man from the Lord," and calls him Cain, meaning possession. 
She may have meant to indicate that she already had the convic- 
tion that this son was the promised being who should bruise the 
serpent's head. Yet it is hardly likely that she had any such 



Eve — the Mother of Mankind 15 

definite conception of this promise. Maybe this is simply a token 
that the promised one will sometime come, and so she gives a name 
which will be a testimony of her faith to all coming generations. 

"This first of mothers, this first woman who had ever dandled 
a babe upon her knee or nourished it from her breast, would soon 
learn that her new relation was not without its anxieties and trials, 
and that it involved duties more numerous, perhaps, to one who 
had never known childhood herself but had at once leaped into 
the fullness of life, than to other women since her time. All her 
knowledge must have been founded on what she had observed in 
the animals about her, whose young became in a very short time 
active, frolicsome, and entertaining. This would not have pre- 
pared her to expect the long and helpless infancy of her new-born 
child, with the restraints which it imposed and the sedulous atten- 
tion which it exacted, in all of which she, the sole woman upon the 
earth, had none of that aid from others which her daughters have 
always been able to obtain." 

While Adam names the beasts of the field, Eve gives names to 
the children. How long after the first birth we do not know, but 
some time after, another son is born whom the mother calls Abel, 
vanity, a vanishing vapor. He may have been a delicate child, and 
because of his physical weakness, the mother may have supposed 
he would not last long; or it may be they were divinely overruled 
to give him a name which, after his death, seemed to carry with it 
a prophetic import ; or it may be that Cain's boyhood -was a source 
of discipline to her. He may have shown by the development of 
fierce passions, which afterwards culminated in the murder of his 
brother, that he could not be the promised seed, and hence it was 
very appropriate that their life of sorrow should find a fitting 
remembrance in the life of this son. 

These lads either grew up with different tastes and hence 
selected different pursuits in life, or they were assigned these by 
their parents. Cain became a tiller of the soil, and Abel a keeper 
of sheep. These in themselves indicate a considerable degree of 
cultivation. These children were brought up to labor. More than 
this, they must have been religiously trained, for we find them 
offering sacrifices to God. The Lord favorably regarded Abel's, 
because no doubt offered in a religious spirit. Cain's offering was 
not so favorably received and he was angry. The reason given 



V 



16 Women of the Bible 

for the same is "because his own works were evil and his brother's 
righteous." The mother must have seen the difference in dispo- 
sition between these boys, and hence, while not turning away from 
Cain, she must have loved Abel with a tenderer love because 
around him would seem to gather all her hopes. Cain was angry 
not only because his Maker had rejected his offering, but, no 
doubt, was also enraged at his brother, because he seemed to be an 
object of divine complacency as well as of a mother's special love. 
"The excellency of Abel's character seemed only to add fuel to the 
flame. His virtues were his faults. So true is it that the wicked 
dislike the good for no other reason than their goodness ; an awful 
argument of the deep depravity of our nature. Cain hated in his 
brother the divine image as much as he envied him the divine 
favor." 

"And Cain talked with Abel." Possibly he kept up the appear- 
ance of friendliness and dissembled his hatred until the oppor- 
tunity came when he could carry out the evil intents of his heart. 
Had he disclosed these, he would have put his brother on his 
guard, but by feigning affection he would allay all fears, and thus 
be aided in his wish. If it could have been the result of sudden 
wrath, while still criminally guilty, some apology could be made 
for him. But his crime seems to have been the result of treachery 
and premeditation, and thus its enormity is greatly increased. 
Cain had never seen a human being killed, and possibly in their 
quarrel may have struck him a blow without knowing what the 
result would be. If some such excuse as this could be found, it 
would lighten, to some extent, the enormity of the crime ; but the 
whole story seems to show that he was envious of his brother, 
decoyed him into the open field, and, while professing friendship 
for him, brutally slew him, thus taking his brother's life and at 
the same time crushing the hearts of his parents. Thus death 
began its ravages ; and the first man that died, died a martyr for 
religion. Though his parents' hearts must have bled over the 
mangled remains of their son, yet they doubtless felt acuter pangs 
for living Cain than for dead Abel. He died in faith and from a 
sinner on earth became a saint in heaven. He was the first of the 
noble army of martyrs, the first of humankind who entered the 
abode of the blessed." 



Eve—the Mother of Mankind 17 

_ We may fancy it was a bright, sunshiny morning when this 
faithful son left home, the home he was never to see again, to 
perform his daily work in the fields. The mother sends him forth 
from the parental roof with a mother's goodwill and never for 
once thought, as she watched him disappear, that she should never 
look upon that form again until cold in death. That eldest brother, 
who should have been his example and protector, strikes him down 
through bitter, cruel envy. The brother who had never raised a 
hand against him is cold in death, the eyes are closed, the heart no 
longer beats, the life lias gone out. Long hours pass by, the night 
is approaching, and still he comes not. Possibly the mother starts 
forth to meet him. Over the familiar path she wends her way, 
utterly unconscious of what awaits her. She sees something 
before her and as she draws near she recognizes the form of Abef, 
but it is motionless. She had never seen a dead human body and 
could not yet tell what this meant. She looks into his face and 
speaks to him, but he does not answer. She tries to arouse him if 
perchance he may have fallen asleep, but he awakens not. She 
finds the wound from which the life blood has been oozing out; 
what must have been the agony of that hour? This would have 
been a dreadful shock to those of us who have grown more or less 
familiar with scenes of wickedness, but how awful must it have 
been to that mother who had never looked upon such a scene 
before, to find that her son had been cruelly murdered, and that by 
his own brother! 

What became of Abel's body ? The record gives us no account 
and yet there must have been some way of disposing of the corpse' 
It could not have been left to the beasts of the field or the birds 
of the air to devour. Such a conception is shocking to us in con- 
nection with our loved ones, and must have been as much so to 
that first mother who stood face to face with the first corpse 
Steps would certainly have been taken to preserve it from this' 
If this were not necessary, the process of decomposition in a warm 
climate would have made it necessary to remove the body out of* 
their sight. It could have been placed in a cave and the entrance 
to it closed as has been done very frequently since ; stones may 
have been heaped upon it to conceal it from the natural eye or a 
hole may have been digged in the ground. Whether it was buried 
by the parents or the murderer does not appear. There is a legend 



•jo Women of the Bible 

which teaches the following: "The dog which had watched Abel's 
flocks guarded also his corpse, protecting it against beasts and 
birds of prey. Adam and Eve sat beside it and wept not knowing 
wha to do But a raven whose friend had died said, 'I will gc .and 
eacn Adam what to do with his son.' It dug a grave and laid the 
young raven in it. When Adam saw this, he said to Eve, Let us 
do the same with our child.' The Lord reverenced the raven and 
no oneTs allowed therefore to harm their young; they have food 
in abundance, and their cry for rain is always heard 

-Can any woman, much less a mother, reflect on Eve s mmeas 
arable agony, and yet pass lightly and heedlessly over this first 
narrative of Holy Writ refusing sympathy, even interest, m the 
de p dai-k Aoodsof misery with which, though her name is not 
Mentioned tho<e few words of a brother's hate and wrath and 
urde" im Not alone a mother's anguish, deprived of both o 
he en Wren in one fearful day, not alone the wild yearnings of 
affection toward the guilty and the exile, struggling with the 
nSnate tmsery of her own bereavement; but more crushing, 
more agoniSng still, it was her own work. She had disobeyed to 
obtata fhe knowledge of good and evil, and how appallingly had 
th£ forbidden knowledge poured back its stinging poison into her 
own heart' Her beautiful had fallen, the helpless and the mno- 
;" crushed by the strong hand of the guilty and .the Eternal had 
looked down from his awful throne and interfered not. Why had 
he onlv Tnnocent, the only righteous, been the first to pay he 
penalty of death, when his guilty parents and yet more guilty 
brother were permitted still to live? In the death of the innocent, 

im %ifSl^^ had done in Eden,, realise so bless- 
edlv the preeminence of the spirit over the feelings of the clay. 
Though comforted, the weakness of humanity must still have been 
too often in the ascendant and taught her all the bitterness of 
Irief Even though the thought of Abel might, through the unself- 
ishness of woman's love, be tranquilized by the idea that however 
she might stiff er, he was happy as she had been in Eden, no such 
Zrt could at'tend the thought of Cain. It was vain to measure 
the maternal love by the worth or the unworthmess of its objects 
It was not only that he was exiled forever from her sight that her 
yearn ng heart might never seek to soothe him more, but she knew 



Eve — the Mother of Mankind 19 

that he was, he must be, a wretched wanderer; and the mother 
felt his wretchedness, though she saw it not, in addition to her own. 
Mercy, indeed, had tempered his chastisement, for he had not been 
cut off in his sin ; he had been doomed to length of days on earth, 
that he might repent and atone ; but this to a weak and suffering 
parent, though she might struggle to lift up her heart in gratitude 5 , 
could not afford consolation." 

When Adam was one hundred and thirty years of age, we are 
told, he begat another son in his own likeness. The expression is 
a peculiar one. Not only was he like him in the structure of his 
body and the faculties of his mind, but his nature was sinful. The 
sacred writer seems to hint at the contrast between the image in 
which Adam was made and that in which his children were be- 
gotten. Adam was created in God's image, pure and holy ; after 
his fall he begat a son who was frail, mortal, sinful. The mother 
called him Seth, for God "hath appointed me another seed instead 
of Abel whom Cain slew." Her hopes had centered in Abel but 
when he was sacrificed to his brother's cruelty it was a great 'loss. 
She still had a son in name, for Cain was yet alive, but he was 
worse than none, and she hoped to find in Seth one who had the 
virtues of Abel ; and in this she was not disappointed, for through 
him and his descendants, the true religion was preserved for many- 



ages. 



Adam lived after he begat Seth eight hundred years and begat 
sons and daughters. He was nine hundred and thirty years old 
when he died As this pair were to replenish the earth and as 
they had children after the murder of Abel, there is a strong 
probability that there were other children 'beside these "Those 
whom we do know are named only because there was something 
remarkable to record of them ; but that there were others riot 
named is certain from the facts which imply that there were other 
people m the earth at the time. We know that there were daugh- 
ters, and the fact that their existence only transpires incidentally 
expresses the probability of a similar silence respecting other chil- 
dren. Cam we know was married, which was probably the case 
also with Abel. They must, therefore, from the necessities of the 
case, lave Had sisters with whom they contracted marriage al- 
though neither their names nor the fact of their birth is recorded 
Une would like to have had some information respecting the first 



20 Women of the Bible 

daughter of Eve. There is an old tradition that Cain and Abel had 
respectively twin sisters, and the twin of Cain became the bride of 
Abel and the twin of Abel the bride of Cain." 

We have no further record of Eve's eventful life. We are not 
told when nor how she died, nor where she was buried. In all 
human probability, she, like Adam, lived to a good old age. We 
feel very sure that she must have repented long before her death 
and been forgiven. And though her life was a sad one, she died 
in the faith of the promised Messiah who was to bruise the ser- 
pent's head. The divine Father was as patient and forgiving then 
as now. Her example and sad life teach us that happiness will 
only come in obedience to God's commands. All sin and suffering 
have their origin in wilful disobedience to God. 

"What comfort, when with clouds of woe 
The heart is burdened and must weep, 
To feel that pain must end — to know 
'He giveth his beloved sleep.' 

"When in the mid-day march we meet 
The outstretched shadows of the night, 
The promise, how divinely sweet ! — 
'At even-time it shall be light.' ' : 

— Alice- Carey. 




araf)===tt)e ^rinceste 



"And now that Sarah is dead, Abraham came to mourn and to weep 
for her. It is a hard thing to part with those we have known longest and 
best. When such parting comes, 'tis the survivor dies; memory is 
quickened into a strange vividness; the past life comes up and passes its 
days before the eyes in all their variety and color and service. I hear 
Abraham talking to himself : 'Oh, how sad is this loneliness ! How awful 
is the stillness of this silence! I can talk to Isaac, but not as I did to his 
mother ; there are some eighty years of life that he knows nothing about. 
Sarah and I wandered together, talked out our hearts to one another, 
planned and dreamed and suffered in one common experience, and there 
she lies a stranger amongst strangers, cold and silent forever.' And 
Abraham wept. The mail who slew the kings, wept. The man whose name 
is to endure as long as the sun, wept." 

—Dr. Joseph Parker, 



££>araf) — tije $rtnces& 



SARAH was the wife of Abraham, the founder of the Jewish 
nation. Abraham speaks of her as his sister, the daughter 
of the same father, but not the daughter of the same mother. 
Many suppose this simply means that Haran, her father, was her 
half-brother, for in accordance with the use of language among the 
Hebrews, he could call a niece a sister and a granddaughter a 
daughter. Her history is in part the history of Abraham. God 
determines to lift Abraham out of the idolatry which is all about 
him in Ur of the Chaldees, and through him build up a great 
nation. In obedience to a divine call, this man and his childless 
wife set out on a strange journey. They were seeking a land 
which was to be shown them, but where it was they knew not. 
They carried with them all they had, piled upon the camels' backs, 
and a few servants probably to care for their cattle. An orphan 
nephew was the only one of their family who had the courage to 
ally himself with them. "As we dimly picture them setting forth 
in the pale dawn of history, we seem to see the laden camels pacing 
slowly, towering above the slow-footed sheep. We hear the 
drivers' cries and the bleating of the sheep, broken by the wail of 
parting women." It would not be strange if Sarah at that supreme 
hour bent over her camel's neck with a bursting heart and with a 
longing to remain with her own kindred. We are not sure that 
she had any call from God, and while Abraham is going forth in 
obedience to the voice of God, which he ever afterward followed, 
she was going because loyal to her husband. 

They came by way of Damascus, where, no doubt, they tarried 
for a time. His first halt in the land of promise is at Shechem, 
about in the center of Canaan. Here he reared his first altar to 
Jehovah. How much or how little he knew of God at this time 
we do not know. God's selection of men for important places 
never excludes some natural phases in the person chosen. A 
writer says of him: "When he turned his face to the dreaded 
desert which stretched wide and inhospitable between him and the 



24 Women of the Bible 

nearest seats of men, he gave his first evidence of that trust in the 
unseen Eternal One, leading to unquestioning, heroic obedience 
which even then had formed the basis of his character and of 
which his later life was to furnish so many illustrious examples. 
'By faith, Abraham, when he was called to go out into a place 
which lie should afterwards receive for an inheritance, obeyed; 
and he went out not knowing whither he went,' is the comment of 

the Scripture." . 

After a time there is a famine in the land of promise, which 
would be a trial of the man's faith. In the fertile plains of Chal- 
dea no doubt he had had an abundance, but now he is made to 
suffer hunger as do others. So far as known to us, this new 
emigrant does not seem to ask divine counsel, but on his own 
discretion starts southward in search of food for himself and 
cattle and finally lands in Egypt. The religion of this people was 
a superstitious worship of nature. He knew the weakness of 
human nature in a lax state of society. He may have known 
something of the character of the people which we do not know 
and which tended to intensify his fears. In a sense the people 
were respectful to women, and yet they were sensual. He insinu- 
ates plainly that they were even less scrupulous about murder than 
adultery, and they would be willing to kill him for the sake of 
securing possession of his handsome wife. 

The Rabbinic traditions are valuable as showing how deep an 
impression this man and his wife have made upon mankind. 
According to them, Abraham rested some days by the River Nile. 
He saw his wife's form reflected there as they walked by the river, 
and he was afraid he would be slain for her sake. He had her 
placed in a chest so he could cross the river, and when the custom- 
house officers should ask him, he would pay whatever they asked 
if they would pass it then. 

" 'Does it contain silks?' ask the officers. 

" T will pay the tenth, as of silk,' he replied. 

" 'Does it contain silver?' they inquired. 

" T will pay for it as silver,' answered Abraham. 

" 'Nay, then it must contain gold.' 

" 'I will pay for it as gold.' 

" 'Maybe it contains most costly jewels.' 

" 'I will pay for it as jewels/ he persisted. 



Sarah — the Princess 25 

"In the struggle the box was broken open and in it was seated 
a beautiful woman whose countenance allured all Egypt. The 
news reached the ears of Pharaoh and he sent and took her." 

To call Sarah his sister was a half truth, but it was intended 
to deceive. His conduct showed distrust in the protection of God 
and fear for his own safety. "It did a cruel wrong to his wife, 
for it exposed her to the most serious of all hazards. No defense 
can be offered for a man who, merely through dread of danger to 
himself, tells a lie, risks his wife's chastity, puts temptation in the 
way of his neighbor, and betrays the charge to which the divine 
favor has summoned him. Not even the excuse can be offered of 
a sudden impulse, for the scheme was prearranged between hus- 
band and wife before they entered Egypt. . . . Deceit in 
order to gain a point or avert a disaster is to this day an inveterate 
habit with most Orientalists; in the best times of Israel, many 
others of lofty character are found succumbing to this dastardly 
vice. The tendency evidently lay deep in the race from its first 
appearance." 

The arrival of so large a company would attract attention. All 
who see the princess are struck with her beauty. This may in part 
have been due to the race from which she sprang, or the skies 
under which she lived. "To-day the beautiful Circassian girls of 
the adjacent mountain region are sold in Constantinople, and it is 
said there are no cheeks so soft and creamy, no eyes so deep and 
lustrous, as theirs, no form so sylph-like and willowy. Of all the 
nations^of the earth, none has ever equaled that from which Sarah 
sprang." These princes are courteous, and, desiring to stand well 
with the king, they make haste to tell him of the remarkable 
woman who has just arrived. The purpose of all this would be 
to supplant some other favored one and thus work their way into 
court favor and secure court honors. 

Just what Abraham expected to do to avert trouble, we are 
not quite sure. If, attracted by her beauty and desirous of marry- 
ing her, some one should make a proposition, as her brother, he 
might delay matters by differing as to dower or such things, until 
the famine would be over. He most likely did not dream of any 
interest on the part of the king. The king would not have dared 
to take the wife of a distinguished visitor, but a sister he might 
take and no one could object. He takes steps to add her to his 



26 Women of the Bible 

household as a new wife. He adds many tokens of respect and 
confers many favors upon Abraham. Before his plans were fully 
consummated, "the Lord plagued Pharaoh and his house," and he 
learns that he has been deceived and that Sarah was a wife and 
not a sister. "The king took back none of the rich presents which 
he had made to the presumed brother, probably as the purchase 
money for a wife, nor did he offer to strip the shepherd chief of 
the increased wealth which had accrued to him in the fertile graz- 
ing grounds of Goshen, where his descendants in the third genera- 
tion were to be quartered. Still less, though the sheik was wholly 
in the monarch's power, did he show him the slightest violence. 
With nothing worse than a reproach, which is severe just because 
it is so gently expressed, he bade him take back his wife and 

begone." 

How many of us have speculated as to what would be the 
result from this or that course of action, and how often have we 
been disappointed ! We may have plans, but God also has plans. 
If ours agree with his, he may bless them ; but if not, he may over- 
rule them so as to promote his own, or may blast them for our 
good. "The evil which Abraham apprehended with respect to 
Sarah did indeed happen, but it was brought about by the very 
measure he had taken to avert it ; and there is every reason to sup- 
pose that, had he from the first boldly declared that she was his 
wife, relying on the protection of God, nothing of the kind would 
have taken place; as it was, this very desire of passing her off for 
his sister, which was designed to secure his safe sojourn amid the 
plenty of Egypt, became the very instrument of compelling his 
return to the land of Canaan.' 

How long Abraham and his wife remained in Egypt we do not 
know; but when sent away, they returned lo the old camping 
ground near Bethel. In Egypt he laid the foundation of the 
familv wealth, which must afterward have become enormous. 
Owing to trouble among the herdsmen, he found it necessary for 
him and Lot to separate. Lot chose Sodom because well watered 
and fertile. Soon after this he moved to Mamre, near Hebron, 
where he dwelt for some time. Before he came hence the Lord 
again cheered him by a repetition of the promise that he should 
possess Canaan by a numerous posterity. 



Sarah — the Princess 27 

Abraham had now been ten years in the land of promise, and, 
although growing old, was not impatient for the fulfillment of the 
promise. He was to have a child and through him a numerous 
posterity, but it had not been declared who the mother should be. 
Sarah, concerned for her husband's glory and happiness, and 
seeing but little hope at her advanced age that she should give 
birth to a child, concluded that the promise, if fulfilled, must be 
through the person of another; so she offered to Abraham for a 
secondary wife-Hagar, her maid, a servant who had probably been 
given to her in Egypt. There was nothing in this arrangement 
which seemed wrong to Abraham at the time, although it carries 
an unpleasant look to us. It would have seemed better for him 
to have waited by faith for the fulfillment of the promise. "For 
a mistress to seek by means of a female slave and favorite attend- 
ant what Providence had denied to herself, was regarded as 
neither immoral nor revolting. It was not even held to be any 
real departure from the law of monogamy or any infraction of 
conjugal fidelity." 

What might have been expected as a natural result now hap- 
pens. When the young mistress saw that she was about to give 
birth to a child, she is elated with the honor, and no doubt becomes 
a little vain if not insolent. The vast possessions of Abraham 
will now be entailed upon her posterity. It would be entirely 
natural for Sarah to have some feelings of jealousy also when she 
saw that this woman, her slave, would soon enjoy the advantage 
thus far denied her of becoming the happy- mother of a child. She 
now blames her husband for that which she herself had planned 
and suggested. When she is now reaping the fruits of her own 
suggestions, she begins to repent of her rashness. Instead, how- 
ever, of confession and condemning her own conduct, she turns 
against her husband and could not have used more severe language 
if he had purposely planned to injure her. Her conduct is that of 
a peevish, disappointed woman, who had made a serious blunder, 
and yet she appeals to God in a case where she was clearly in the 
wrong. Hitherto the woman was Sarah's slave and she had the 
exclusive right to control her ; but now, having in a sense become 
the wife of Abraham, it is not likely she can be disposed of with- 
out the consent of Abraham. He does not seem to know much of 
the ill feeling that is going on in the woman's tent until he is 



28 Women of the Bible 

informed of it by Sarah. He is a gentleman, with no taste for 
domestic quarrels, and without upbraiding Sarah for what had 
been done he simply resigns all control and tells her, "Behold, thy 
maid is in thy hand." ^ . 

The record tells us that Sarah "dealt harshly with her. this 
may mean by verbal reproaches, but more likely by some personal 
mistreatment. The treatment was so severe that Hagar flees 
from her home, but she cannot flee from the face of God. She is 
the mother of Abraham's child, and has an interest in the protec- 
tion of the Almighty. An angel finds her and inquires whither 
she is going and sends her back again with instruction to "submit 
thyself under her hands." For her encouragement he tells her that 
her child shall be the father of a great nation. 

The whole transaction shows Sarah in a not very enviable 
light. She is the eager, impulsive, hot-headed woman who is 
accustomed to be indulged, who is impatient in her troubles, and 
who is positive that she is in the right. She is amazed and angry 
because her husband does not bring this slave woman to terms. If 
she again gets possession of her, she will teach her a lesson how 
to conduct herself toward her superiors. "A more magnanimous 
woman might have spared the sister whom she had herself thrown 
into a position of difficulty ; but this Chaldean princess was not 
above showing unhandsome spite when her woman's pride had 
been touched to the quick. She made the girl's life so bitter that 
at the last Hagar fairly ran away from her master's encampment 
and fled toward her native land of Egypt." 

From his birth, Hagar's son, Ishmael, was regarded by his 
father as his promised heir, in whom the nations of the earth 
should be blessed. For thirteen years he was the hope and joy of 
his parents and the master of that household. When Abraham 
was ninety and nine years old, the silence from heaven was once 
more broken, the covenant is renewed with him, and the rite of 
circumcision is established. At the same time he tells him that, 
old as his wife is, vet she shall bear a son and "kings of the people 
shall be of her." This was confirmed some time later. As he sat 
at his tent door, in accordance with the etiquette of the times to 
receive any guests who might come, three strangers approach. 
"Notice the beautiful hospitality of the reception. The emir 
rushes himself to his herd to choose the fattest calf and com- 



Sarah — the Princess 29 

mands the princess to make ready the meal and knead the cakes. 
Then comes the report. The account of the promised blessing 
at which Sarah laughs in incredulous surprise, the grave rebuke 
of the angels, and Sarah's white lie, with the angel's steady answer, 
are all so many characteristic points of the story. Sarah in all 
these incidents is, with a few touches, made as real flesh and 
blood as any woman in the pages of Shakespeare ; not a saint, but 
an average mortal with all the follies, weaknesses, and variabilities 
that pertain to womanhood, and to womanhood in an early age of 
imperfectly developed morals." N 

Abraham was one hundred years old when Isaac was born. 
At the age of three years, as was the custom with Jewish women, 
her child was weaned. Great preparations were made for this 
festive occasion. In the gladness of her motherly heart she ex- 
claims, "God hath made me to laugh, so that all that hear will 
laugh with me. Who would have said unto Abraham, that Sarah 
should have given children suck ? for I have born him a son in his 
old age." Up to this age, we find the son of the bondwoman nur- 
tured along with her son, Isaac, under the same roof. No doubt 
when Hagar returned she was reconciled to her, and their relations 
were fairly pleasant. Possibly she treated kindly the mother and 
petted the boy until he began to be too unpleasant to be endured. 

The story further tells us that Ishmael, who was now coming 
into manhood and should have had more self control, jeered at the 
little child who was so soon to displace him. This mocking started 
once aeain the hot blood of Sarah. A wise woman would have * 
excused him because of his youth, and the hot blood of his mother, 
and trusted to the after years to secure his acquiescence in the 
divine plans ; but Sarah was no more thoughtful than she had 
been years before, and could not brook any insult to him who was 
to be the heir of the promise. It may be she had not forgotten 
their previous encounter, and the memory of this only intensified 
the present. She peremptorily insists that the bondwoman and 
her son shall be cast out, and that Ishmael shall not be an heir 
with Isaac. Abraham demurs to this arrangement. Sarah's mind 
is fixed exclusively on Isaac, but Abraham, as the father of both 
children, has an affection for each and he cannot well be indifferent 
to Hagar with whom he lived as his wife. The voice of the Lord, 
however, comes to his help and assures him that, severe as the 



30 Women of the Bible 

demand of Sarah may be, it was in keeping with the divine plan 
and would be best in the end for both of them. Had they remained 
and grown up together, no doubt much strife and danger would 
have arisen between the children, if not indeed between their 
mothers. As soon as he learned it was the divine will, he need no 
longer hesitate. He arose in the morning, provided them with 
such things as they would need on the journey, and sent them 

away. 

As to the particular nature of the offense in the case of Ish- 
mael, we have no account, but a prominent writer makes a con- 
jecture after this fashion : "In the common events of life all that 
is incomprehensible, is either ridiculed, disbelieved, or made a 
matter of scandal, and therefore in a case so uncommon as this, 
it is more than probable reports very discreditable both to Sarah 
and Abraham were propagated all around them. Hagar indeed 
and Ishmael must have known differently, that it was the hand of 
God which worked and therefore all things were possible ; but it 
was to Ishmael's interest to dispute or deny the legitimacy of 
Isaac, and therefore it was not in human nature to neglect the 
opportunity. No other offense would have so grated on Sarah. 
We are apt to think more poetically than justly of this part of -the 
Bible. In a mere superficial reading we acknowledge Sarah does 
appear in rather an unfavorable light; that this, however, is a 
wrong judgment, is proved by the fact that the Eternal himself 
desires Abraham to hearken to the voice of Sarah." 

The years following this were in all human probability among 
the happiest of Abraham's life. He is on friendly terms with his 
neighbors and therefore dwells at peace among his flocks. The 
country about him is pleasant and his wealth is abundant. The 
years pass quietly by and bring with them never-failing plenty for 
his whole encampment. More than all else, his earthly home has 
been blessed with the child of promise. "His weary waitings 
throughout a quarter of a century had been at last rewarded by a 
son of his lawful wife, the gift of his covenant with God, to be in 
due time the heir of his possessions and, better far, the heir also 
of that mysterious blessing which in his seed was one day to bless 
all nations. And yet, after many years of unbroken rest and 
satisfied desires, there burst on Abraham, like a bolt out of a clear 
sky, the supreme crisis of his discipline." 



Sarah — the Princess 31 

There comes to Abraham the command to take this son of his, 
this heir of the promise, and to offer him to the Lord as a burnt 
offering. The loss of a beloved child at any time would be a great 
affliction ; but in the present case, to sacrifice this child would in 
effect extinguish the hope of the world. There is but one thing 
for him to do. He has been schooled too well and too lone not to 
know that the Lord's ways are the best ways. He might have said 
many things, but with his heart almost breaking he yet said 
nothing. He obeys the command. He makes careful preparation 
so that nothing shall be wanted for the sacrifice. And thus "early 
in the morning," he rises and saddles his ass for the journey ; and 
with this boy, now possibly nearly twenty years of age, and 
attended by two servants, he starts on his sad journey. 

We hear nothing of Sarah in all this transaction. Did she 
know of this remarkable call which Abraham had heard, that her 
child, the child of her old age, the progenitor of nations, was to be 
carried away and put to death? And was her confidence in God 
so strong that she agreed with her husband that he who gave had 
also the right to take away? Was she up early on that eventful 
morning to help prepare this son for the great trial before him? 
As she went about the work of the early morning preparing pro- 
visions for this journey, did not her heart almost break, and did 
not the big tears course down her cheeks? Did not her motherly 
affection put her arms about his neck and with breaking heart 
imprint the last kiss on his much loved cheek ? Or did Abraham 
slip away that morning, taking that mother's boy away without her 
knowledge, believing that if she knew of his purpose, her mother- 
love would be so strong that he would have difficulty in obeying 
the command? Did he not feel that that mother's faith was not 
as strong as his own, and that her rebellious heart would surely 
say nay to his further proceeding? Alas, we know not and can 
only conjecture. Surely, that father could not, would not, take 
away that mother's darling without at least a fond farewell. Says 
one, "That which he must do, he will do ; he that hath learned not 
to regard the life of his son, hath learned not to regard the sorrow 
of his wife." 

Another puts it after this fashion : "The trial of faith in the 
sacrifice of his son was given to the father; but the mother was 
spared the consuming agony which must have been her portion, 



32 Women of the Bible ■ 

even had her faith continued strong. God had compassion on the 
feebler, weaker nature of his female servant. He demanded not 
from her that which he knows the mother could not bear. He 
spared her, in his immeasurable love, the suffering which it 
pained him to inflict on the father — the suffering and temptation 
not to satisfy the Lord, for his omnipotence knew that his faithful 
servant would not fail, but to prove to future ages the mighty 
power of spiritual faith and love, even while in mortal clay." 

If Sarah knew for what purpose Isaac had been taken from 
home, and had even in her tears consented that Abraham should 
carry out the Lord's will as he understood it, how rejoiced she is 
when he returned again, having been miraculously saved, and thus 
the Lord has been obeyed and her child preserved to her. If she 
did not know of it until it was all passed, how her brain would 
throb as she listened to the great danger and the more wonderful 
deliverance. "Isaac had never been so precious had he not been 
recovered from death, if he had not been as marvelously restored 
as given. The only way to find comfort in an earthly thing is to 
surrender it in a believing carelessness into the hands of God." 

After that eventful scene at Moriah, there is no voice from 
heaven to break the silence of his uneventful years. There may 
be no occasion, for his relation to God is well assured. He goes 
back to Beersheba and he lives on, a period of twenty-four years 
of which we have no mention. With our rapid lives, living and 
enjoying in one year more than these people did in five, with a 
multitude of things to engage our attention and divide our inter- 
ests, we can hardly realize how T the members of such a family as 
Abraham's would grow to need each other and how much one 
should be missed. Through long periods they were constantly 
together and each would seem necessary to the other. "Of society, 
except that of their own slaves, there was little or none. The 
round of easy occupations which made up their shepherd life left 
ample leisure for domestic converse. It was inevitable that their 
lives should grow together as if kneaded into one. Husband and 
wife, parent and child, must have molded one another's character 
to an extent hardly possible in other states of society. From such 
a close circle of relations the disappearance of one loved and 
familiar face would leave a blank never to be filled and scarcely 
ever to be forgotten." 



Sarah — the Princess 33 

It was a sad event in this family when death made the first 
breach, and, at the age of one hundred and twenty-seven years, 
Sarah, the princess, the wife and mother, fell asleep. It made a 
sad, desolate life for Abraham. She was the only one who linked 
him to the memories of the past and brought back the incidents 
of his youth. Of those who had started out on that strange 
pilgrimage sixty-two years before, she was the only one left. She 
was ten years his junior and her removal reminded him that there 
was another journey before him, and it was not far distant, which 
was even more venturous than the one he had already taken. 
What their convictions of th other life were, we cannot now tell. 
The departed were believed to have some kind of conscious exis- 
tence, but the land whither they went was still a dumb land — a 
land full of questions without answers. There is no doubt but 
that the dim light which Abraham brought with him from his 
childhood was confirmed and maybe made more definite as he 
meditated on what God had revealed to him. 

The wife of his early years, the one who had been with him 
in all his wanderings, who had shared his trials, and whom he 
loved to the last, now leaves him. The account of the sacred 
writer is tender and touching : "And Sarah was an hundred and 
seven and twenty years old : these were the years of the life of 
Sarah. And Sarah died in Kirjath-arba; the same is Hebron in 
the land of Canaan : and Abraham came to mourn for Sarah, and 
to weep for her." The noisy wailing, which custom requires 
should be arranged for the funeral of a princess, was no doubt 
going on outside ; but Abraham sits alone, most likely in Sarah's 
tent beside his dead, his heart almost benumbed and scarcely able 
to think at all, and if thinking, full of sad, bitter thoughts. Old 
man as he is, and having led an eventful life, the experiences of 
thirty years have not extinguished in his heart emotions which 
such an event should awaken. Mourning for the dead is a tribute 
to the memory of their living worth. There is nothing opposed 
to true wisdom or the manly virtues in a proper lamentation for 
our departed friends. 

But he cannot delay long. The climate is too warm and he 
must bury his dead out of his sight. Although heir of the promise, 
he has no sepulcher in which to place his dead. He has been here 
for possibly sixty years, and yet has not a foot of soil he can call 



34 Women of the Bible 

his own. His home has been his shifting tent, and his domain the 
wide desert. He must have some place for his dead which will 
be a pledge to his posterity of his faith in God's promise. When 
he chose his burial place' in Canaan, he removed all connection 
with the past. He probably was familiar with caves for burial 
in the land of Ur (Mugheir), from which he came. When he 
comes to the children of Heth to secure a burial place he tells 
them, "I am a stranger and a sojourner with you." "Never does 
the impression of this great truth come upon us with such force, 
never do we feel the ties that bind us to the earth so loosened, so 
nearly rent asunder, as when we stand by the grave of those we 
love. Would that we could carry this abiding conviction along 
with us in the daily business of life. How little influence would 
its trials and disappointments have over us." 

In accordance with the customs of the times, he buys the cave 
of Machpelah and pays for it with silver. He obtained not only 
the cave itself but "the field and all the trees that were in the field 
and that were in the borders round about." He not only secured 
a burial place, but by this transaction he helped to keep alive 
among his descendants the expectation of sometime possessing 
this land. Without some such reminder they might, during their 
Egyptian bondage, forget their future destiny. It had the de- 
signed effect. Here were buried Abraham and Sarah, Isaac and 
Rebekah, and Jacob and Leah, although Jacob died in Egypt. And 
Joseph gave commandment that he also should be carried back 
with them and buried in the land of promise. Here in this cave 
near Hebron he buried Sarah. 

"The piety of some unknown age, probably Jewish, erected 
round the spot massive walls of noble masonry which still exist. 
Inside these walls the devotion of early Christians consecrated a 
church, and over the church the devotion of the Mussulmans, a 
mosque. The gates of that mosque, the famous Haran of Hebron, 
had been closed against Western unbelievers for six centuries, 
when with extreme difficulty access to it was procured for the 
Prince of Wales in 1862. Railed off, each one within its separate 
chapel, there lie the coffin-like shrines to which are attached the 
venerable names of Sarah and Abraham, of Isaac and Rebekah, of 
Leah and Jacob. These, however, are only empty monuments. 
The real tombs, if they exist at all, must be sought, beneath the 



Sarah — the Princess 35 

floor of the building in the rocky cavern underground. To this 
vault a trapdoor in the pavement promises to give access ; but as 
yet its darkness remains unvisited and unviolated. So far as 
could be ascertained through such a brief and partial inspection 
of the mosque, it is clear that the contents of that sacred place 
answer exactly to the requirements of the Scriptural narrative. 
Unfortunately more than this cannot be said. It is reserved for 
some explorer more fortunate than even the Prince of Wales to 
disclose the well-kept secret of the tombs of the patriarchs." 

While Sarah is human, with human frailties and human am- 
bitions, her character is in the main a very commendable one. 
Peter (I. Peter 3:1, 6) commends her for her loyalty to her 
husband. "Likewise ye wives, be in subjection to your own hus- 
bands; that, if any obey not the word, they also may without the 
word be won by the conversation of the wives; . . . even as 
Sara obeyed Abraham, calling him lord : whose daughters ye are, 
as long as ye do well, and are not afraid with any amazement.'' 
She retained the love of her husband to the very last. She was his 
faithful helpmeet going with him, sharing his good or bad for- 
tunes, caring for his interests, and exhibiting toward him the most 
loving respect. So far as we know, she never deceived him. 
When she wanted Hagar sent away, she may have shown a little 
temper, but she was open and frank in her plans. 

Then she is to be commended for her care of her son and her 
anxiety that he should be surrounded with proper influences 
This was her only child, the child of her old age, and for this 
reason very dear to her. But in addition to this she knew he 
was to be the heir of the promises, and through him the nations 
of the earth should be blessed. She saw Ishmael, "mocking." 
He was thirteen years older than Isaac and a wild and rude boy 
She had reason to believe that this reckless boy would corrupt hei 
own and therefore she sought their separation. It seemed a little 
severe to send this mother and child away, but it met the divine 
approval. It was better that Isaac should grow up under different 
influences, and the mother's foresight saw such a result, and her 
strong mother-love went to work at any cost to preserve her boy. 
How much her son, Isaac, was influenced by her home train- 
ing we do not know. He does not have the vigor of his father. 
Says a writer : "He makes no stir in the world, no noise, he excites 



36 Women of the Bible 

no emotion. We only catch a glimpse of him now and then, suf- 
ficient to enable us to recognize him as a dutiful son to his father, 
a loving son to his mother, an affectionate, uxorious husband, a 
partial lather, and a pious but weak old man. He seldom speaks. 
He wants force of character; and soon subsides into an instru- 
ment in the hands of others, who use him for their own purposes. 
So we never meet with Isaac in positive and decisive" action, but 
commonlv find him in some instrumental position or other." 



2|agar===tfre g>(abe WLiit 



"Her God is ours. He speaks to us as plainly as he spoke to Hagar 
We have felt him in the firs? crisis.of our life as the All-seeing ^ and have 
obeved his call to take up the duties of a steady life. The n man ^ years 
oass bv and monotony lays its withering finger on our life. We neea 
another' shSck-the shock of the afternoon of life— if we are to grow into 
smne^ And it comes, awakening us from the commonplace 

stin-inc, u S to* our center. Cruel and bitter we think it, as we are driven 
mto the desert leaving behind us all the ancient loves and sorrows We 
ec forth carrying with us our last hope, our last aspiration, the child ct 
nnr ^ole h r fe des ring, at least, to save that from the tempest of sorrow. 
And t m er'yl trowfdeeper, the thirst for our lost youth, our lost energy 
our lost WhtnSss. At list it seems we can bear no more The heaven 
2 brass to our prayer; the water is spent in the bottle. We cast away 
our last hope and turn aside lest we see it die. j , 

OUl Stopford A, Brooke, in "The Old Testament and Modem Life. 



©agar— tfje g>latoe mitt 



OF the early history of Hagar we have no definite informa- 
tion. We are told that Sarah "had an handmaid, an 
Egyptian, whose name was Hagar." She was a bond- 
woman, a female slave, in opposition to a free woman. In accord- 
ance with usages of the time, she might be disposed of by her 
mistress, Sarah, as she chose. It is more than likely she became 
a member of Abraham's family during his visit to Egypt and may 
have been one of the "maid servants" presented by Pharaoh to 
Abraham or, more probably, to Sarah. The name Hagar is sup- 
posed to mean flight, fugitive, stranger. As it is a Hebrew name, 
it is not likely that it was given her by her parents, but probably 
came to her afterwards in process of time from the leading events 
of her history. It was customary in those times for the male and 
female departments of a family to be kept in some measure dis- 
tinct, and hence Hagar is Sarah's servant as Eliezer is Abraham's 
servant. The relation between the servant and the mistress is so 
intimate that the children of the maid by the master are reckoned 
as those of the mistress. 

Although Abraham is to be the father of the faithful, up to 
this date he is childless, and he seems to have had some thought 
of adopting an heir, most likely his faithful steward Eliezer, but 
the Lord comes to him again and tells him, "This shall not be thine 
heir, but he that shall come forth out of thine own bowels." 
Hitherto the promise had only been a general one, that he should 
be blessed with an innumerable seed without regard to who should 
be the heir, but the promise is now renewed so explicitly that here- 
after there can be no mistake. He was to be the father, but it 
was not yet said who would be the mother. When this informa- 
tion was given, it began to press more and more upon the mind 
of this princess that possibly she was the instrument which thus 
far had obstructed the fulfillment of the promise. For more than 
ten years she had looked forward to the birth which should bring 
joy to both their hearts. It did not seem best to her to wait any 



40 Women of the Bible 

longer for the fulfillment of the divine plan. She began to sug- 
gest to her husband to seek through other methods, not unusual 
in those days nor in any way thought improper, the attainment of 
this promise. 

The true way would have been to allow God to fulfill his own 
promise in his own time, and not to hasten it by any questionable 
methods of their own. Abraham might have taken to himself 
another wife, but neither he nor Sarah seemed to think of a 
second marriage. The customs of the age allowed a different 
method. The slave was entirely in the hands of his master, much 
as it was in the early slavery days in our own land. "Every home 
slave stood at the disposal of his lord for whatever service the 
lord might require. His very children were not his own but his 
master's. For a mistress, therefore, to seek by means of a 
female slave and favorite attendant what Providence had denied 
to herself, was regarded under such a state of feeling as neither 
immoral nor revolting. It was not even held to be any real depar- 
ture from the law of monogamy or any infraction of conjugal 
fidelity." So Sarah advised that Abraham take her servant as his 
secondary wife and he consented. He is eighty-five and Sarah 
seventy-five years of age. 

The result was as might have been anticipated. Up to this 
date Hagar seems to have been a faithful, obedient servant who 
gave no occasion to Sarah for any reproof. It is not long until 
it is evident that Hagar will become the mother of a child. The 
young woman, so pliant before, now becomes elated with the idea 
of the honor which is put upon her and becomes a little vain and 
insolent. When she finds that her son is to become heir to 
Abraham's vast possessions, her blood boils with exultation and 
"her mistress was despised in her eyes." There might have been 
others who had grievances of their own and who were only too 
ready to fill this mother's too credulous ears with their sugges- 
tions. Hagar will now become the mother of the heir of the 
tribe, her son will become the chief ruler ; while Sarah, the child- 
less, will, in the not far distant future, take a secondary place. 

It must have been a great disappointment to Sarah, who, in- 
stead of receiving increased gratitude and affection from one 
whom she had reared and nourished and cherished, was despised 
with an insolence that might, if not checked, bring discord into 



Hagar — the Slave Wife 41 

this very household where there had been peace and quiet. In 
place of a devoted woman, identified with her success, whose child 
should be loved and treated as her own, she is at once met by a 
woman who plants herself as a proud rival seeking her place and 
position. Sarah was not a woman to tamely submit to such ingrat- 
itude. In the new relation into which Hagar had come by Sarah's 
own consent, she cannot be summarily dismissed. While she is 
Sarah's servant, she is now Abraham's wife, the mother of his 
child, and thereby entitled to protection against any outbursts of 
passion or of jealousy. 

When Sarah saw how her plans had miscarried, the whole 
affair became hateful to her. The crime may not have been 
altogether her own, but she assails her husband somewhat severely 
and lays at his door the blame of a transaction which was entirely 
of her own devising. "My wrong be upon thee." How this 
could be we do not exactly see. Possibly she means that Abraham, 
as the chief, should have rebuked Hagar's insolence and redressed 
the wrong which Sarah suffered. It cannot mean that she re- 
proves Abraham for entering into a relation which she herself had 
suggested. She is simply reaping what she has sown when it is 
too late to repent or to undo what has been done. Abraham 
could not be severe upon the future mother of his child and retain 
his own self respect. He went to the very verge of tenderness 
when he relinquished his rights and permitted Sarah to do as she 
desired. Hagar was no rival of the lawful wife, but a slave and, 
as such, at her disposal. A tender-hearted, forgiving woman 
might have spared the slave sister whom she had thrust into such 
a place, and we cannot but think that Sarah showed a little vin- 
dictiveness in her treatment of the matter. 

As a result of this bitterness of feeling, we are taught that 
"Sarah dealt hardly with her," says the margin "afflicted her," 
most likely by some kind of personal maltreatment, as the expres- 
sion seems too strong to mean simply verbal reproaches. It is 
questionable whether Abraham was not a little too yielding at this 
time to allow this slave woman to be so afflicted. He refrained 
from upbraiding Sarah as he might reasonably have done. He 
preferred domestic peace rather than to justify himself and place 
the blame where it properly belonged. The whole affair was very 
unfortunate, to say the least. "Sarah is betrayed by the eagerness 



42 Women of the Bible 

of her spirit first into a culpable expedient, then into unkindness 
and unduti fulness towards her lord, then into irreverence and 
impiety toward God, and finally, by an easy transition into bar- 
barity towards the helpless handmaid whom her own scheme had 
brought into a condition that claimed her utmost compassion and 

kindness." , . • 

Smarting under the severe words and harsh treatment ot her 
indignant mistress, this proud, hot-blooded, untrained, slave girl 
flees for her life. Better the peace and quiet of her own Egypt 
among kindred and friends than the bitter usage of this high- 
handed princess. She takes the direction toward that country 
which led her to what was afterwards called "Shur. It was a 
sandy tract west of stony Arabia, extending one hundred and fifty 
miles between Palestine and Egypt. The caravan road between 
these two countries still lies through the heart of this desert. She 
is fleein- from the face of an unkind mistress, but she cannot flee 
from God The interest which Abraham has in her as the future 
mother of his child brings her under the special care and protection 
of the Almighty. "One well-known and welcome fountain broke 
to the traveler of that age his monotonous march across the barren 
interval which divides the rolling pastures on the southwest of 
Hebron from the nearest green corner of Egypt Here by this 
spring was this runaway girl sitting to replenish her skin-bottle 
with water or to recruit her wearied limbs, and here the angel of 
the Lord met her. It must have been with a feeling of awe that 
Hagar witnessed this remarkable appearance and listened to this 
communication. The gods of Egypt were all invisible and there 
hung over them a veil of silence. Their shrines were dark 
recesses which could be trodden by the feet of no profane or 
uninitiated one. But here she meets one who had seen her a lowly, 
fugitive slave, had followed her in her wanderings to this place, 
had allowed himself to be seen of her, and had revealed to her 
what should happen in the hereafter and which only immorta 
beings could know. Was it not appropriate that she should call 
this place "the well of the God of seeing" ? . 

He addresses her as "Sarah's maid," and inquires why she is 
here and whither she is going. The calling of her name in this 
desert place where there were no people and therefore none to 
know her, would excite her wonder and make her think it was 



Hagar—the Slave Wife 43 

more than a human voice that called to her. The fact that she is 
addressed as "Sarah's maid" and not as "Abraham's wife," al- 
though the latter would be as true as the former, may have'been 
to lower the self-complacency which had led her into these 
troubles, and lead her mind back to a contemplation of her condi- 
tion before these troubles had come upon her. She frankly con- 
fesses she is fleeing "from the face of my mistress Sarah." "We 
know our present grievances and we can tell whence we came 
much better than our future lot or whither we go. In many cases 
if the truth were spoken, the answer would be, from bad to worse." 
The angel commands her to return to her mistress and submit 
herself to her hands. She had done wrong in behaving so un- 
seemly to her. God does not take part with her in her rebellious 
pride nor in her desire to usurp the station and the honor of her 
mistress; nor does he approve of Sarah's severity. They must 
each learn to bear with the other. As she sat by that well, it may 
be possible her own conscience began its work and reminded her 
of her own shortcomings. It was best that Abraham's son should 
be born and nurtured in his own home. He who holds in his hand 
even the king's heart and can turn it as he will, can so prepare their 
hearts that they shall live in peace. "The solitude and dangers 
of the wilderness and the apparition of the angel, awful though in 
mercy, would of course greatly have diminished in Hagar's mind 
the resentment occasioned by her mistress' treatment. With 
Sarah, on the other hand, the sudden disappearance of her maid, 
the loss of her services, the great apprehension of the evil which 
might have befallen a desperate woman in her delicate situation, 
regret for cruel behavior, together with the soothing effect of time 
and serious reflection, would no doubt tend to modify and mollify 
her spirit and dispose her to welcome back the returning fugitive ; 
while Abraham, always wise, gentle, and good, would necessarily 
rejoice m the restored peace of his family, accompanied as it was 
with a fresh demonstration of the divine tenderness toward him 
and his." 

And yet God will respect that feeling of motherhood in this 
girl who begins to seek place and station for the son she is to 
bring into the world. In recompense for the cruelty of her 
mistress, she is informed that she is to become the mother of a 
mighty race. The curtain of the future is turned aside and she 



44 Women of the Bible 

sees sketched in vivid colors the future which awaits her unborn 
bov and the characteristics of the people who shall come from 
him They shall be men of the desert and shall scorn the city 
crowds, and so it has been. "Again and again they have been 
hunted down by invading armies ; but neither the Macedonian 
ror the Roman, nor the Turk, has been able to establish a settled 
rule over their inaccessible and inhospitable wastes. Again and 
a-ain have these predatory hordes swept over adjacent states ; but 
neither have they been willing to exchange the free air of the 
deserts for the restraints of a settled community. Most unchange- 
able of races, they dwell where they have always dwelt, m the 
presence of all their brethren, stable in their instability, while 
empire has succeeded empire and civilization has grown upon the 
ruins of preceding civilizations. With characteristic fidelity have 
their own unwritten traditions handed down the memory of their 
boasted descent from the father of multitudes through him whose 
birth was announced by the angel at the fountain." 

Ha^ar went back to her mistress' house with subdued feelings 
and a disposition to be a faithful servant. Whatever else may 
come God has vouchsafed to her a forecast of the future, and her 
child shall be the founder of a great people. In due time her 
child is born. No doubt she has told Abraham all about the scene 
in the wilderness, and so, in accordance with the divine appoint- 
ment he calls the child Tshmael, God will hear, or as immediately 
interpreted, God hath heard, alluding to the meeting with the 
ano-el in the wilderness. So far as we remember this is the first 
instance of a name given by divine direction before birth, though 
many instances of like kind occurred afterwards. Peace and 
quiet seem to prevail in the family. For twelve or thirteen years 
at least, the son grows up under the shadow of his father s tent, 
beloved bv his parent and "kindly and generously treated by his 
foster mother. So far as is known to Sarah, he is still to be the 
heir of the promises, the father of the faithful. _ 

After an interval of years God again appears, renews his 
covenant, and corrects the wrong impressions of Abraham as well 
as of Sarah, who to this elate no doubt believed that Ishmael was 
the promised seed. Now Sarah herself is to give birth to a child 
which shall be the lawful heir. When Abraham was one hundred 
years of age, his son Isaac was born. This event no doubt diffused 



Hagar — the Slave Wife 45 

a general gladness throughout the whole camp. Yet Hagar must 
have beheld with sorrow the frustration of her hopes that she had 
long cherished, that Ishmael should be the future heir. While 
she may have taken no pains to manifest such disappointment, it 
was very evident that Ishmael, who was now twelve years of age, 
sympathized with the feelings of his mother, while his impetuous 
youth would prevent him from concealing it as did his mother. 
"Sarah also on her part, was, by the birth of a son of her own, 
freed from the considerations which had probably hitherto re- 
strained and regulated her conduct toward them ; and from one so 
much older as Ishmael and of a resolute and untractable character, 
she might reasonably apprehend some danger to the heritage or 
even the safety of her son in case Abraham should depart from 
life during his nonage. These feelings finally came to an explosion 
when Isaac was three years old, at a public festival in honor of 
his weaning. 

Sarah saw Ishmael "mocking." What this means precisely, 
perhaps cannot be known. Whatever it was, in the eyes of Sarah 
it was a very grave offense. It might have been a reflection on 
Sarah herself as we have intimated in the sketch of her life. It 
may have been some wanton teasing calculated to irritate and vex 
Isaac. "His mockery awoke in Sarah the old slumbering jeal- 
ousy. A wise or forebearing woman would probably have borne 
with the youth's natural vexation, excused his rudeness for the 
hot blood of his mother that was in him, and trusted as he grew to 
years of more discretion, to win his acquiescence in the divine 
arrangement. Sarah was not now, any more than seventeen years 
before, very wise or very forbearing. Her proud temper could 
not brook so much as the presence of one who dared to slight, 
even if he did not presume further, her own Isaac. It is posstble 
too that her former bitterness against Hagar had a little to do 
with her severity against Hagar's son." 

"Cast out this bondwoman and her son," demands Sarah with 
the air of one accustomed to command, "for the son' of this bond- 
woman shall not be heir with my son, even with Isaac." The most 
obvious sense of these words would mean that she desires Abra- 
ham to divorce Hagar, or by some legal act so arrange that Ish- 
mael may be excluded from all claim to the inheritance. This 
seems a hard requirement on the part of Sarah and one which 



46 Women of the Bible 

Abraham hesitates to adopt. He had set his heart on this boy, no 
doubt expected to rear them both and divide his inheritance with 
them ; and there seemed no human reason why it should not be so. 
"The thing was very grievous in Abraham's sight." "Sarah's 
regard was fixed exclusively on Isaac. She did not consider 
Ishmael as a son but rather as an intruder and a rival. But 
Abraham, being the father of both, felt a paternal affection for 
each ; nor was he indifferent towards Hagar whom he considered 
and lived with as a legitimate wife. Perhaps, too, he suspected 
that Sarah's proposal originated in an irritation of temper, and 
that less severe measures would in a little time satisfy her mind. 
As may well be supposed, he was exceedingly grieved at the 
thought of proceeding to such extremities, but, finding her reso- 
lutely bent upon it, he committed the matter to God and sought 
direction from above." 

The word of the Lord came to him probably in a vision in the 

night, assuring him that severe as was Sarah's demand, it would 

be best for both of the sons. "Let it not be grievous in thy sight 

because of the lad, and because of thy bondwoman; in all that 

Sarah hath said unto thee, hearken unto her voice; for in Isaac 

shall thy seed be called. And also of the son of the bondwoman 

will I make a nation, because he is thy seed." Once assured of 

the will of God, the old patriarch no longer hesitated. To send 

away his son was no doubt a severe trial to him, but he controls 

his own paternal instincts in order to obey the divine command. 

Such severe ordeals still come to the faithful children of Abraham, 

and they must be prepared to nie^t them or they are not the 

children of the father of the faithful. "And Abraham rose up 

early in the morning, and took bread [provisions] and a bottle 

[sack] of water, and gave it unto Hagar, putting it on her 

shoulder and the child [boy] and sent her away ; and she departed, 

and wandered in the wilderness of Beersheba." It would look 

a little as if starting for Egypt, her native country. 

Abraham no doubt furnished them with all the provisions 
they could carry and he could do no more. "It may absolve 
Abraham from the charge of cruelty on this occasion if we bear 
in mind not only that the transaction was altogether in accordance 
with the manners of those times, but also that it was no difficult 
thing for any person to find a livelihood in this early age of the 




< 
< 

X 



Hagar — the Slave Wife 47 

world. Those who had flocks found ground enough to spare in 
every country to maintain them ; and creatures were so numerous 
that a person who had no flocks might, in the wilderness and in 
uncultivated places, kill enough of all sorts for his maintenance 
without injuring anybody; and accordingly we find that Ishmael 
chose to reside in the wilderness, where he became an archer." 
''So far as Ishmael was concerned, the archer and huntsman 
whose home was to be the desert with his bow for his best inherit- 
ance, it was well that he should be early trained to the hardships 
of a nomadic chieftain. For his own comfort, he could not too 
soon be compelled to forego all idle dreams of one day succeeding 
to his father's estate. Too soon he could not be withdrawn from 
the presence of a brother whose priority would only inflame his 
envy. It was the kindest thing for the youth to send him away 
from his father's tents. Let it be remembered that he was not 
sent away from his father's God. The mercies of God are not 
limited to the area of his covenant." 

Hagar starts on her journey with her boy to find again the 
home of her youth. Hot-blooded, impetuous, wounded, wronged 
maybe, with no heart to remember the God who once before 
heard her, she journeys on. If God be pitiful and just, why has 
he allowed her to be driven away from her own home, a divorced 
wife, and her son robbed of his inheritance? After a time the 
water in the skin-bottle gives out, and there is no spring to be 
found in this inhospitable place. They seemed to have walked 
until, overcome with thirst, the boy could walk no longer. She sup- 
ports him as long as she can, but, fearing lest he will die in her 
arms, she places him under a shrub to screen him from the hot, 
scorching sun, and goes away the distance to which an arrow 
would fly. "And she sat over against him, and lifted up her voice, 
and wept." "A more finished picture of distress it would be 
difficult to produce. The bitter cries and flowing tears of the 
afflicted mother, with the groans of her famishing son, are seen 
and felt as though we were present. Had there been any ear to 
hear, any eye to pity, or any hand to help the sufferers, their cries 
and tears might have been mingled with hope; but as far as 
human aid is concerned, their condition was apparently desperate,, 
But in God, the fatherless and friendless find mercy. Lost in the 
wilderness, outcast from society, ready to perish with hunger and 



48 Women of the Bible 

thirst they meet with the notice of him who feeds the ravens, and 
without whom not a sparrow falleth to the ground. 

To those of us in this Western country who have such an 
abundance of water, it is hard to properly conceive of the suffer- 
ings to which those may be subjected who have it not. A traveler 
who crossed a desert gives an account of great suffering incident 
to such, from which we extract the following: "Generally speak- 
ing in a desert there are few springs of water, some of them at 
the distance of four, six, and eight days' journey from one 
another and not all of sweet water. . . . When the calamity 
happens that the next well which is so anxiously sought for is 
found drv, the misery of such a situation cannot be well described. 
In short, to be thirsting in a desert without water, 
exposed to the burning sun without shelter, and no hopes of find- 
ing either, is the most terrible situation that a man can be placed 
inland one of the greatest sufferings that a human being can .sus- 
tain • the eves grow inflamed, the tongue and lips swell, the hollow 
sound is heard in the ears which brings on deafness and the 
brains appear to grow thick and inflamed ; all these feelings arise 
from the want of a little water." _ 

We are not sure that the mother cried to God Like her, in 
our desperate condition we often forget what we should most of 
all remember. He had met her once before, it may have been in 
this same wilderness, and had spoken cheering words to hen We 
often forget God, but he never fails to remember us. In that 
horn of her deepest desolation, when of all times life seemed the 
least worth living, she hears a voice of gentle reproof and of en- 
couraging tenderness, which no doubt she had heard years before 
sS , 'What ailetb thee, Hagar? fear not." The condition of 
the boy had been noticed by Him who seeth all things. She must 
not desert her son at this critical period. If she had remembered 
the promise made to her before of the future destiny of this son, 
"be would make every effort to save him, trusting that the divine 
hand would supply her wants. She once more bestows on the lad 
the attentions which a mother's love would prompt, and the prom- 
ise is renewed to her that God will make of him a great nation. 

' "God opened her eves, and she saw a well of water, from 
which she hurried to fill her skin-bottle, and gave her son to ..drink. 
His thirst was allayed, the vital fluid coursed more freely through 



Hagar — the Slave Wife 49 

his veins, and his eyes shone with their accustomed luster The 
well was there all the time, but she did not see it. The ano- e l did 
not create the spring in the desert. She had not been seeking God 
or she may have found it earlier, but he was seeking her Not 
that she lacked the organs of vision, for she had these all along 
but up to this time the well had escaped her notice and its location 
was unexpectedly made known to her. How often in our hours 
of grief there are sources of consolation all about us, and yet 
because of the blindness of unbelief, we see them not. If we could 
but keep our eyes open as we journey through this wilderness life 
what sights we should see, what comfort we should experience' 
what wells of refreshing water we should everywhere find! 
_ bnould we not, with Jacob, see the angels ascending and descend- 
ing on errands of mercy to mankind ? Should we not like the 
servant of Elisha, behold the hosts of heaven engaged for our 
defense Should we not, if we could look up steadfastly to 
heaven like Stephen, see the glory of God and Jesus standing at 
his right hand ? b 

The boy revived and the Lord crowned him with temporal 
prosperity He became an archer, which means an adept in the 
use of the bow and arrow in hunting. He would grow more and 
more into predatory habits. The expulsion from his father's home 
would most naturally increase any high temper which he may 
have originally possessed and help to fix and make permanent 
that with which he was born. "It would seem that he gradually 
brought himself to bear, and finally to prefer, that world of liv J 

necessity. He dwelt m the wilderness of Paran and his mother- 
took him a wife out of the land of Egypt." It shows that the 
customs of the land had about the forces of law, when one 1 Ling 
o wi d a bfe as did this man, in reality a son of the desert, should 
so w.lhngly in a matter of this kind subject himself to the will of 

ZT \ I V V ' fe W3S M Egyptia " WOman > °»* of her own 

The P wif a p n f t", S i™ 3 SePa ? ted fTOm his father ' s connections, 
the wife of Ishmael is not elsewhere mentioned. No record is 

made of any other wife of Ishmael, and, failing such record this 

Egyptian woman must have been the mother of his twelve sons 

and daughters. It does not seem that there was any serious alter- 

cahon between Ishmael and Isaac. When Abraham died ''bis 



50 Women of the Bible 

sons, Isaac and Ishmael, buried him in the cave of Machpelah ," . 
Esau married Ishmael's daughter, Mahalath.. When one hundred 
and thirty-seven years of age, "he died and was gathered to his 
neople " Where he died or where he was buried we know not. 

It is interesting to notice how, all along the channel of history, 
God provides, with a wise foresight of the future, for the upbuild- 
ing of nations. "As a skillful husbandman, bent on perfecting a 
certain seed, separates it from all others and grows it by itself, so 
the Bible tells us that God selected a certain stock to be trained 
and cultivated into the sacerdotal race, through which should come 
his choicest revelations to man. Of this race, in its final outcome 
and perfected flowering, was to spring forth Jesus spoken of as 
the branch of this sacred tree. For the formation of this race we 
see a constant choice of the gentler and quieter elements ; of blood 
and character and the persistent rejection of that which is w d 
fierce and ungovernable. Yet it is with no fond partiality 
For the one or antipathy to the other that the Father of both thus 
decides The thoughtful, patient, meditative Isaac is chosen ; the 
wild, hot-blooded, impetuous Ishmael is rejected; not as m them- 
selves better or worse, but as in relation to their adaptation to a 
great purpose of future good to mankind. The ear of the All- 
father is as near to the cry of the passionate, hot-tempered slave 
and the moans of the wild, untamable boy, as to those of the 

patriarch." . tj » 

It is startling how minutely the prophecy concerning Hagar s 
child has been fulfilled. "He shall be a wild ass of a man; his 
hand against every man's and every man's hand against him 
He and his descendants should be the Bedaween of the Arabian 
elements. A commentator writes thus concerning them : ihe 
character of the Israelites or the Bedaween could not be de- 
scribed more aptly or more powerfully. Against them alone time 
seems to have no sickle, and the conqueror's sword no edge. They 
have'defied the softening influences of civilization and mock .tie 
attacks of the invader. Ungovernable and roaming obeying no 
I but their spirit of adventure, regarding all mankind as then 
enenTs whom they must either attack with their spears or elude 
wi ,T their faithful steeds, and cherishing their deserts as hear dy 
1 they despised the constraint of towns and communities, the 



Hagar — the Slave Wife 51 

Bedaween are the outlaws among the nations. Plunder is legiti- 
mate game, a daring robbery is praised as valor." 

Of the subsequent history of Hagar after securing a wife for 
her son, we have no record. She may have gone back to Egypt, 
but most likely she remained with Ishmael the remainder of her 
life. When she died or where she was buried, we do not know. 
There is a Mohammedan tradition that she was buried at Mecca. 
Mr. Rowlands, in traveling through the desert of Beersheba, dis- 
covered some wells and a stone mansion which he says the Arabs 
still designate as those of Hagar. 

Paul uses this history of Hagar in his letter to the Galatians 
to illustrate a valuable truth. Hagar represents the Jewish church 
which was in bondage to the ceremonial law. She was a slave and 
her son was born in the ordinary course of nature and without 
any special interposition. Sarah represents the true church of 
Christ which was free from this bondage. Her son was the child 
of freedom, of promise, and was under the benefit of them as 
long as he lived. "Isaac not merely inherited his father's blood 
he showed his father's piety; in him, therefore, was appropriately 
prefigured all the moral family of God, who in every age have 
walked m the steps of Abraham and who are summed up in Isaac's 
anti-type, Jesus Christ. No less conspicuously did the wayward 
boy who owed his birth to Sarah's willful scheme and Abraham's 
weakness and Hagar's servitude, typify, both by outward position 
and spiritual character, all such as stand nominally inside the 
household of faith, yet have not been born of the Spirit into the 
free trust and love of sons, but serve God only under a bondman's 
constraint or with a bondman's fear." 

WhiJe the character of this woman is not in every respect a 
model worthy of our imitation, yet it is full of valuable teaching 
to us all. The way m which God watched over this blinded hot- 
headed, passionate, Egyptian slave girl, and cared for her in her 
time of deepest need, is full of comfort to all bleeding, sorrow- 
stricken hearts. She was not seeking God, but he sought her 
\\ hen fleeing from her mistress he sent her back, with a promise 
that was full of comfort to her heart. And when at last facin- 
as she supposed, the death of her darling bov, the same kind vofce 
asked, "What aileth thee, Hagar? fear not." That same voice is 
speaking to all sinful, wayward, desperate, despairing sinners to- 



52 Women of the Bible 

day Not only to the righteous but to those whose troubles have 
come of their own wrongdoing, still appears the angel of the Lord, 
to reveal to their blinded eyes the fountains of life, which they 
did not see, and bv the drinking of which they shall never thirst 
again, but it shall be in them a well of water springing up into 
everlasting life. 



&ef)ekaf)-rt)e Jflanagtng OToman 



"Why does not the angel speak audibly to Rebekah? Why should theie 
be two'servants, the winged one in the air and the common one in charge 
of the camels? It is by this double ministry that providences are con- 
firmed " All through life we see this principle of mediation or douole 
ministry at work. ... In this way you will see many curious coinci- 
dences in human life, things that are more easily explained upon religions 
than upon merely secular grounds. How you meet certain persons, how 
they come to be at such a place at such a time, how you happened to drop 
a certain word or give a certain hint, why you should have gone just then 
and not at another time— these things and a thousand others wiU puzzle 
and bewilder you on merelv secular principles; but if you believe in bod, 
in his presence, care, and providence in human life, a great light will tall 
upon the whole outline of your history, and you will own with adoring- 
wonder that God has been directing and stabhshmg you all your days. 
Life without a religious interpretation is a pitiful tragedy; life with a 
religious interpretation may be a torturous road ending m a quiet and 
blessed heaven/' -Dr. Joseph Parker. 



a^ebefeaf) — t&e jWanagtng Woman 



A 



FTER the burial of his wife, Sarah, Abraham is the more 
concerned that his son, Isaac, who is to be the heir of the 
promises, shall be properly married and settled in life It 
may seem a trivial thing that this old man should be so concerned 
for a son who was now old enough to look after himself, but 
nothing is trivial that will tend to illustrate the operations of God's 
grace or serve to build his church. He was surrounded by the 
idolatrous Canaanites. He had no reason to complain of their 
personal treatment of himself, but they were enemies to God and 
to take their daughters in marriage would be a sure way to corrupt 
his own family. If other parents would manifest as much interest 
m seeing that their children were not improperly joined, as did this 
man, it would be better for the race. To what purpose would it 
have been to call Abraham away from Chaldean idolatry if his so* 
should join affinity with those who lived in Canaan? He is not 
looking for wealth or position for his son, but that he may be so 
mated that his own religious life and character may more certainly 
be secured. J 

He resolves to send him back to his own people. While after- 
results show they were not a model people in every respect and in 
the days of Jacob show idolatrous taints, they are infinitely better 
than those about him. He has been absent from them at least 
sixty years, and, after leaving, never went back, with his own wife 
He has learned nothing about them, save what he may have gath- 
ered from some passing traveler. He is probably five hundred 
miles west of them and has none of our modern means of com- 
munication He has a faithful servant whom he probably secured 
as he came from that country many years before, and he will send 
him on this very important journey. He makes him solemnly 
swear that he will not take any of the Canaanitish women, but 
will go back to his own kindred. Eliezer says nothing in reply 
of the dangers and hardships of the journey, for he knows the 
worth of his master and will do anything to serve him; but sup- 



55 Women of the Bible 

pose the woman will not follow him? Abraham has considered 
this phase of the matter and his faith is equal to the emergency. 
"The Lord God of heaven, which took me from my father s house 
and from the land of my kindred, and which spake unto me and 
that swear unto me, saying, Unto thy seed will I give this land ; he . 
shall send his angel before thee, and thou shalt take a wife unto 
my son from thence. And if the woman will not be willing to 
follow thee, then thou shalt be clear from this my oath. hhezer 
is satisfied and makes preparations for his journey 

-How admirable a pattern is this for parents ! Great numbers 
brin- nothing but worldly considerations to this all-important 
subject The outward attractions of fortune, rank, or personal 
gifts are the only things regarded. No wonder in such unions 
comfort and serenity of spirit are banished from our abodes. 
Whether, therefore, we are choosing for ourselves in this matter, 
or sanctioning the choice of others, let the example of this holy 
man have its due weight in governing our conduct. Let us learn 
from him to subordinate everything to the one great concern, the 
interest of the "soul. Let every plan and purpose entertained, 
every occupation chosen, every place of residence selected, every 
conviction formed, express our firm and unwavering conviction of 
the reality, the importance, the preciousness of those interests 
which infinitely transcend all others." 

Eliezer arranges for the journey. What a blessed assurance 
that God will send his angel before him and prosper his way! 
From how much anxious thought will this relieve him ! We do 
not suppose that this meant the presence of any personal being, 
but that God would remove all difficulties from his way, and over- 
rule any objections which should arise. This would not prevent 
him from using all natural and judicious means for the furthering 

of his purpose. 

The servant thus seems to be the legal guardian of the son. 
Isaac is not cautioned as to whom he shall marry, but the servant 
is sworn that he will not marry Isaac to any of the heathen women 
around him. If the old Patriarch should die, it looks as if the 
management of the household would fall into the hands of his 
servant The preparations which he now makes indicate great 
wealth on the part of his master. "And the servant took ten 
camels of the camels of his master, and departed ; for all the goods 



Rebekah — the Managing Woman 57 

of his master were in his hand : and he arose, and went to Meso- 
potamia, unto the city of Xahor." 

This seems to be the first notice in the scriptures of actual 
riding upon camels. /'The information respecting this journey 
leaves us satisfied that the camel had already come to be engaged 
in these services of transportation and of travel for which it is to 
this day used ; and for which it is so well adapted by a physical 
constitution which gives it an extraordinary power of resisting 
thirst, which enables it to endure much fatigue with little suste- 
nance, and which renders the scant herbage of the desert its 
choicest food; and by the possession of a foot specially adapted, 
in the wise providence of God, for traversing the sandy wastes 
and tracts, which, but for its aid, would be impassable." " 

In addition to these ten camels there must have been a number 
of attendants and servants. One man could not well have managed 
them all, nor would it have been in keeping with Oriental notions 
for one man to have started out for such a purpose. While he had 
the promise of a successful ending to his mission, he must use the 
means which will tend to secure a favorable result. This imposing 
retinue, which would seem almost like a small caravan, would 
tend to make a favorable impression on the lady who should be 
solicited, as well as on her family, and would help to assure her 
and them that in accepting the offer of Eliezer, she would not be 
in any danger of lessening any of her present comforts. 

In due time, after days of weary journeying, Eliezer reaches 
the place of which he was in quest. Xahor, the brother of Abra- 
ham, had lived here. He had eight sons, one of whom, named 
hethud, still resided here. He may have been near Abraham's 
age, for he seems to be an old man, and all that occurs is under 
the direction of his son. He had a son named Laban and a daugh- 
ter Rebekah. The family do not dwell in tents, but have a place 
in a town which seems to be of some importance They are 
engaged in pastoral life ; some of their flocks are away from home 
m the care of shepherds, and others are cared for by themselves 
the family seems to be among the most important in the town of 
Haran. _ Eliezer could have gone to the house and made known 
his mission, but he is on important business, and needs to be pru- 
dent and discreet. He makes his camels kneel down to rest There 
is a well near by, but it may be locked. If not, it would not be 



5g Women of the Bible 

courteous to take the water without permission of the owner. It 
is approaching evening and some one no doubt will be there to 

draw water. 

Having done the best he could, he proposes to leave the matter 
in the hands of Him who controls all hearts. In a simple, child- 
like way, as a son would talk to his father, he talks to God, his 
Father It is not a formal, ceremonial address, but a genuine 
petition of the heart. "Behold, I stand here by the well of water; 
and the daughters of the men of the city come out to draw water ; 
and let it come to pass, that the damsel to whom I shall say, Let 
down thy pitcher, I pray thee, that I may drink ; and she shall 
say Drink, and I will give thy camels drink also ; let the same be 
she' that thou hast appointed for thy servant Isaac ; and thereby 
shall I know that thou hast shewed kindness unto my master. 

In our time a man who wants a prudent wife does not usually 
look for her about the village postoffice, the town pump, or the 
railway depot. But in those earlier days, females of the most 
honorable families were engaged in domestic duties, and the carry- 
in* of water was one in which they would take peculiar pleasure, 
for it would give them an opportunity for meeting their com- 
panions and of having some pleasant conversation. We shall 
never forget the eight or ten female water carriers whom we saw 
at a spring at Nazareth, and the pleasure they enjoyed m meeting 
each other. In this case, Eliezer fixed his own sign. Not the one 
who should first offer her services, but the one who grants the 
service asked of her. The one who would tender her services might 
be enticed by the wealth of the retinue, and be a little officious. The 
well may be deep, and to draw from the well or to go up and down 
the steps carrying water for so many camels, would be no easy 
task If he should ask for a "sip" and she should tell him to 
"drink" and then offer to quench the thirst of his weary camels, 
this will be evidence to him of a kind, generous heart. "What 
Eliezer wanted for his young master was not beauty or talent, but 
a ready and unfailing outflow of sympathy and kindness. He sought 
not merely for a gentle nature, a kind heart, but for a heart so rich 
in kindness that it should run even beyond what was asked, and be 
ready to anticipate the request with new devices of happiness. 
The lively light-hearted kindness that could not be content with 
waiting on the thirsty old man, but, with cheerful alacrity, took 



Rcbckah — the Managing Woman 59 



upon herself the care of all the ten camels, this was a gift beyond 
that of beauty." 

"Before he had done speaking," or as he says elsewhere, "be- 
fore I had done speaking in my heart" from which we infer it was 
a mental and not an audible prayer, there came an answer. "So 
forward is God to bestow his benefits upon us that they do not so 
mueh follow our prayers as prevent and go before them." 

Scarcely was his prayer over, when a beautiful damsel is seen 
approaching the well with her pitcher on her shoulder. Attracted 
by her fair face and kindly bearing, the servant proceeds to apply 
his test, hoping, no doubt, that this lovely lady is the one appointed 
for his master. As she came up the steps from the well of water 
with the full pitcher on her shoulder, the servant ran to meet her 
and said, "Let me sip, I pray thee, a little water out of thy pitcher." 
But she answered very kindly and politely, "Drink, my lord," and 
put the pitcher down upon his hand that he might be able to quench 
his thirst. Had she stopped with this, it would have been a com- 
mendable act, but not the one who had been chosen for the mas- 
ter's family. Scarcely was this done, when, out of the abundance 
of a generous heart, she said, "I will draw water for thy camels 
also, until they have done drinking. And she hasted, and emptied 
his pitcher into the trough, and ran again unto the well to draw 
water, and drew for all his camels." What a picture that would 
have been for an artist ! Ten camels at the trough, possibly on 
their knees, after a long abstinence, drinking with intense satis- 
faction the water which they now find; while this kind-hearted 
maiden is busy emptying her pitcher and filling it again, thinking 
nothing of the labor, that she may quench the thirst of these half 
famished camels. As Eliezer looked at this manifestation, is it at 
all strange that, "the man wondering at her, held his peace, to 
know whether the Lord had made his journey prosperous or not"? 
As a token of his appreciation of what she had done, and pos- 
sibly to prepare the way for further inquiries, he presented her 
with a nose-ring of gold, which is often given to a bride on her 
betrothal, and which is still worn by the women of Arabia. Fol- 
lowing this, he gave her two golden bracelets of more value than 
the other. Such ornaments, and others of various kinds, are very 
generally used in the East to this day. A woman may have very 
indifferent clothing, but be adorned with bracelets, anklets, nose- 



60 Women of the Bible 

rings and other ornaments which would purchase many dresses 
He then inquired of the maiden whose daughter she was, and 
whether or not there was room in her father's house for him and 
his people to spend the night. She reported that she was the 
daughter of Bethuel, who was the son of his master's brother, and 
she furthermore tells him that there is room for him and his men 
and "aw and provender" for his camels. The servant saw such 
a wonderTul leading of Providence that he "bowed his head and 
worsh pped the Lord, and he said, Blessed be the Lord God of my 
ma r Abraham, who hath not left destitute my master of hi . 
mercy and his truth; I being in the way, the Lord led me to the 
house of my master's brethren." 

The damsel ran back to her mother's home and told them & 
that had happened at the well. One may well imagine the delight 
with which she exhibited the rich jewelry, that had so unex- 
pectedTy come to her. Laban, the brother, hears of the rich 
caravan at the well, and sees proof of the same on the person of 
tes ster What we learn of the after life of this man shows htm 
to have been a man of mercenary spirit, with a keen eye ,to h,s ; own 
nterest and it may not be misjudging to infer that the kindness 
shown in this case was not so much due to the promptings of a 
genlrous heart as to the gain or glory which might come from 
entering an embassador traveling with such a retinue and 
freelv dving away his jewelry. The narrative further teUs us 
"And if canfe to pass, when he saw the earring [nose-ring] and 
the bracelets upon his sister's hand, and when he heard the words 
of Skah his sister, saying, Thus spake the man unto me that 
he came unto the man ; and, behold, he stood by the camels at the 
well And he [Laban] said, Come in, thou blessed of the Lord ; 
wh refore standest thou without? for I have prepared the house 
Tnd room for the camels. And the man came mto the house : and 
he Sed the camels, and gave straw and provender for the 
can els and water to wash his feet, and the men's feet that were 
wuhtim And there was set meat before him to eat : but he said, 
T will not eat until I have told mine errand. 

1 So L iezer proceeds to tell the whole story of h, nuss.on up 
to the present hour; how the Lord had blessed his mastet Abra- 
ham the oaft he had taken to his master not to take a wife for 
tsa™e f om the Canaanites, his promise that the Lord would d.rect 



Rebekah — the Managing Woman 61 

him, the prayer that he had uttered at the well, and the apparent 

fulfillment in the generous and beautiful young maiden who had 

come to the well ; and he thus ends his story, "And I bowed my 

head, and worshipped the Lord, and blessed the Lord God of my 

master Abraham, which had led me in the right way to take my 

master's brother's daughter unto his son. And now if ye will 

deal kindly and truly with my master, tell me ; and if not, tell me • 

that I may turn to the right hand, or to the left." Everything 

indicated in his opinion that Rebekah was the person chosen of 

God to be Isaac's wife. The father and brother are of the same 

opinion, and they thus express their own judgment: "The thing 

proceedeth from the Lord : we cannot speak unto thee bad or 

good. Behold, Rebekah is before thee, take her, and go, and let 

her be the wife of thy master's son as the Lord has spoken." 

All this seems strange to us. A servant is sent to find a wife 
for his master's son. He has full power to conclude the whole 
contract. He addresses himself to the father and brother of the 
young lady desired, and they make the agreement without consult- 
ing Rebekah at all. He carries her off and Isaac and Rebekah 
meet each other as husband and wife, without ever having seen 
each other before. However strange such customs and usages 
may seem to us, they still prevail in the East. In Persia to-day if 
a voting man wishes to marry, his parents look about amon* their 
kindred for a suitable partner. When one is found, his parent- 
proceed to the home of her father and make propositions to him 
If acceptable to him, he orders sweetmeats to be brought A few 
days later another meeting is held, and it is finally settled what the 
parents will give for the daughter. These gifts remain with her 
and form her dower if divorced, hence they become an important 
matter. Sometimes the woman's consent is asked, but usually she 
has no power to negative the contract. 

The servant bows himself once more in thankfulness to his 
God who has granted him such wonderful success. And now 
many precious things such as "jewels of silver and jewels of gold 
and raiment" are brought forth and given to Rebekah, and some 
also to the mother and brother, probably as a part of the dower 
usually given to the daughter. It would be easy for such a suitor 
as this to find hospitable entertainment. What a picture this must 
have been as the family examined the rich goods and the valuable 



£2 Women of the Bible 

jewelry which this representative of his wealthy master had 
hrouaht with him. Eliezer and the men with him retire for the 
St and Tey sleep soundly ; and well they may, for not only are 
SS tked and weary, but the journey has been a successful one 
and teir hearts are glad. But how did the young Rebekah sleep? 
During the silent watches of that night, did she not think earnestly 
of the wonderful experiences which had come to her_ during the 
kst twenty-four hours? Will not any thoughtful maiden have a 
st ange flood of emotions when she pledges her life to another, 
and thus for all time places her destiny in his hands? And while 
i this case the contract was made by others, as was the custom, 
t affected her destiny and she could not be indifferent to it 

Far ly in the morning the household was astir, and Ehezer 
say "Send me away unto my master." The mission is accom- 
plished and there is no need of further delay. Besides that he 
t h s to make report of the result at as early period as possible 
The mother and brother ask that they remain a f ew days, .so a 
to accustom their thoughts to this -w experience '"^house 
hold but Eliezer requests that they hinder him not. The matter -is 
re erred to Rebekah whether she will go at once or remain a few 
davs oneer • on that reply hangs much of her destiny, bu she has 
Suit ft ail over during the night, and her conclusion has been 
reached. "She said, f will go. And they sent away Rebekah, their 
sister and her nurse, and Abraham's servant, and his men And 
hev blessed Rebekah and said unto her, Thou art our sister, be 
thou the mother of thousands of millions, and let thy seed possess 
the p-ate of those which hate thee. 

This whole transaction, in the main, seems to have been con- 
ducted in a religious spirit. The farewells were taken, and the 
caravan started on its return trip. Rebekah leaves the pleasant 
horn and journeys over five hundred miles through an unknown 
cotmtry to meet and marry a man whom she had never seen. So 
tone as her hand keeps fast hold of the divine hand, she may go 
forth chee fully. We have no account of this journey, nor of the 
, dents that occurred on the way. Abraham seems to be living 
at or near the well of Lahai-roi, Isaac comes here and tames 
Wre orobab v to await the return of the servant who went to seek 
a wife for him At the eventide, in keeping with his religious 
chara ter and meditative disposition, he had gone forth to pray, 




REBEKAH AND EEIEZER 



Rebekah — the Managing Woman 63 

"to give scope to the pious sentiments of his heart in a retired 
place at the tranquil hour of twilight, when the soul is most dis- 
posed for devout contemplations. Isaac could not have put him- 
self in a more suitable posture for welcoming the anticipated 
blessing than that in which he is here represented, nor in one 
which would have been more apt to insure its being made sub- 
stantial and durable." 

Rebekah is no dreamer, but an active, wide-awake, young 
woman. She was prompt and ready to act in her hospitality at 
the well; she was ready in due time to give prompt answer if she 
would go in the morning. She sees this man in the open fields, and 
no doubt soon learns or suspects who it is. According to custom, 
she covers herself with a veil, possibly to prevent any confusion 
. which might occur from too sudden an exposure, but more likely 
because she is coming as an espoused wife. She at once alighted 
from the camel, as it would have been a breach of Oriental eti- 
quette to have remained thereon when presented to him. The 
servant rehearses the story of his journey. Isaac had never seen 
this woman until she stood in his tent as his wife. With a touch 
of pathos the story tells us "he loved her." The comfort of a wife 
will now compensate for the loss of a mother, whom three years 
before he had helped to bury. While God afflicts on one hand he 
cheers and consoles and binds up on the other. So beautiful and 
so religious has seemed this whole affair, from the inception to its 
final consummation, that many Christian churches use it as a 
model of a marriage according to the divine will. "Send thy 
blessing upon these, thy servants, this man and this woman whom 
we bless m thy name ; that as Isaac and Rebekah lived faithfully 
together, so these persons may surely perform and keep the vow 
and covenant between them." 

Isaac was forty years of age when he married, and now nine- 
teen years have passed and he has no heir. He entreats the Lord 
for children and his prayer is answered. He is informed that his 
wife shall give birth to two children, who shall be the founders of 
nations, and that the elder shall serve the younger. The first was 
named Esau, meaning "hairy," and the second Jacob, "supplanter " 
because at birth he had laid hold of his brother's heel \s they 
grew up, Esau seemed to be fond of the sports of the field and 
became an expert in hunting, while Jacob was more domestic in 



64 Women of the Bible 

his nature, and followed the occupation of a shepherd. As the 
mother had been informed, so, no doubt, Jacob knew, that he was 
to be the heir of the promise. One day he finds his brother tired 
and weary, and he buys of him his right to the birthright privi- 
leges. We cannot approve of what Jacob did, and yet we must 
remember to judge him by the tone of the age in which he lived. 
He did not do a brotherly act, and yet we may not forget that the 
man who sold it had no appreciation of its value. It proved to be 
a serious affair in the end, and came very near being the beginning 
of a lifelong enmity between these brothers. Some time after 
this, there was a famine in the land, and Isaac went into the 
country of the Philistines near Gerar. He evidently was intending 
to go to Egypt, but was divinely hindered. With his mild, delicate 
character, he would not be able to withstand the temptations, nor 
to encounter the perils which he would likely meet. The Lord 
repeats to him the promises which he had made to Abraham, and 
will give him the land whereon he is now sojourning. Here he 
falls into the same weakness which had dishonored his father. 
Because of Rebekah's beauty he was afraid they would kill him, 
and so he passes his wife as his sister. It was not an absolute 
falsehood, for she was his cousin and the term "brother" and 
"sister" as used by them indicated any kind of kindred. Yet it 
was calculated to leave a wrong impression. By an accident, the 
king learned of the true relationship, and reproved Isaac for thus 
endangering his people. Isaac remained here some time, and tilled 
the fields and grew great in herds and servants. The Philistines 
around envied him, and to express their dissatisfied feelings, filled 
up the wells so as thereby to destroy his flocks which could not 
exist without water. In order to prevent trouble among the serv- 
ants, the king advised Isaac to move farther away, which he did, 
and open up one of the wells of his father, but still the trouble 
continued. Pie removed farther until he reached Beersheba where 
Abraham had dwelt. He builded an altar and tarried there. A 
covenant was made with the king of Abimelech that they would 
be friends to each other. While here, Esau shocked the feelings 
of both his father and his mother by marrying two wives out of 
the heathen women about him, the very thing which Abraham had 
taken special pains to avoid in the case of his own child. The 
domestic jars which grew out of this ill-assorted union may have 



Rebekah — the Managing Woman 65 

helped not a little to estrangement from his mother, and led on to 
results which proved somewhat serious. 

The mother still opened the door to the hunting son, but it 
did not go back with the old swing; the mother still looked upon 
that well-built, noble form, but she wished that the interior of his 
nature had been at this instance equal to the mold and fashion 
which nature had bestowed uponiiis physical frame. A wounded 
spirit, who can bear? This alienation is not a matter of arms, and 
revenge, and bitter speeches, and reproaches which ease the very 
heart that launches them upon its object; this was an instance of 
grief of mind, sorrow of heart, a wounded spirit for which there 
is no balm." 

Isaac has now reached probably his one hundred and thirty- 
seventh year, and is visited with extreme weakness and loss of 
eyesight. He expects soon to die, and before he does, prepares to 
confirm his final blessing. He is weak and feeble, and in spite of 
Esau's bad conduct, he is still the object of his father's partiality. 
He sends him to secure some food, to which he was specially par- 
tial, and after partaking of that, he will bestow upon him the 
paternal blessing. When Esau is gone to the field, the mother, 
who had heard all, reports the same to Jacob, and she instructs 
him to go to the flock and bring two goats, and she will prepare 
them so that the father may bless him instead of Esau. Jacob seems 
to see an impropriety in the act, and says of his father, "I shall 
seem to him as a deceiver." The mother insists that he go for- 
ward and obey her and says, "Upon me be thy curse, my son." 

There is a difference of opinion as to how much blame we 
should attach to Rebekah in a matter of this kind. Many women, if 
convinced there was a divine promise of good to their own favorite 
son, would have rested in quiet faith believing that God would 
accomplish his own purpose, but Rebekah was not of this kind. 
It would be a great wrong to confer spiritual leadership upon one 
so manifestly incompetent as Esau, and hence good, easy, doting 
Isaac must not be allowed to interfere with God's plans.' "It is 
quite possible that she thought she was doing her duty. She was 
preventing a wrong, doing evil that good might come of it. It was 
a pious fraud and when we consider how dubious great authorities 
—favored with all the light of Christian morality and doctrine- 
have been on the subject of such frauds, we need not too greatly 



f£ Women of the Bible 

wonder that Rebekah and Jacob failed to see the path of right and 
duty clearly. It appears to us that Rebekah felt all to be nght 
both means and ends ; and that Jacob thought the end to be nght, 
but was staggered at the means until his mother succeeded in 
soothing, if not in extinguishing, his alarms." He was, however, 
full forty years of age and must take the responsibility of his own 
actions The plan came near failing, but the father s misgivings 
as to the voice were overcome, and the much desired blessing was 

beSt °We d must not force Providence. Is there not a time for the 
rkintf of the sun and going down of the same ? Is there not a 
edtime in the year, as* well as a harvest day ? We are tempted 
o force Providence, thus, to do the right thing m the wrong way 
and at the wrong time. . . . It is tempting to natures like ours 
to hip ourselves by trickery. We do like to meddle ™ h God, 
Granted that the mother saw the religious aspect of this whole 
S and knew the destiny of the boy, she had no right o force 
dtvine Providence. The vineyard is yours every cluster of grap 
is yours ; but do not touch one atom of fruit till the sun has 
wrought his ripening ministry upon it. We may not touch even 
Thing! that are our own until the right time comes. We know th 
„ the field, we know it in many mercantile transactions but it 
seems impossible to carry up that knowledge into the highest 
religious applications. We cannot wait because we are impatient, 
and our impatience is but one phase of our ignorance^ 

How little do we know the consequences of a single act. 
When Rebekah said, "Upon me be the curse," she had no adequate 
conception as to what results would follow. Jacob was soon sent 
Sfie to save him from the vengeance of an > outraged 
brother. The mother supposed she was sending him f or_ a htrie 
while but the probability is, she never saw his face again. He 
fled to the house of Laban, his uncle, and agreed to serve him 
seven years for Rachel. When the time comes for consummation 
of this agreement, the cruel father gives him the wrong daughter 
Thus early has the deceit, practiced upon his own father, returned 
upon himself. But this is not all ; he seems doomed to misfortune. 
Tie Ls in after years to one of his wives ?<»£££ *£ 
ceived me and changed my wages ten times The severest mng 
is yet to come. His own children conspired to injure the child 



Rebekah—the Managing Woman 67 

his affections, their own best brother, and then reported that he 
was lost. The coat which they bad dipped in blood, helped to 
complete the deception. For many years his life was saddened 
because of the loss of bis child, and the gloom was not lifted 
entirely when he found him again and thereby knew that his own 
children had cruelly deceived him. The wrong which he had prac- 
ticed upon others came back in time upon himself. 

Notwithstanding the fact that Esau had sold to Jacob his 
birthright, which carried with it the blessing of his father vet 
when he found what Jacob had done, he was very angry and 
planned to murder his brother as soon as his father should depart 
by thus suppressing his resentment for a time, he did show some 
feeling for his father, but had no consideration for the o- r ief of 
his mother. The mother hears of this and, in order to save Jacob 
sends him away for a few days "until thy brother's fury turn 
away. Rebekah had been successful, but it "was a success that 
embittered the whole life, both of Jacob and his parents. Rebekah 
the contriver of the cause, was deprived of her favorite son, prob- 
ably for the rest of her days. He who should have been the stay 
and consolation of her declining years, was a stranger in a distant 
land A or did the evil terminate here. Instead of the elder serv- 
ing the younger, Jacob was now a banished stranger, a wandering 
fugitive, in continual terror of his enraged brother " & 

To Rebekah, there must have come a feeling of loneliness 
almost ike a bereavement. Jacob is gone and Esau could not 
have felt very kindly toward her after he learned the part which 
she had taken with Jacob in plotting against him so great a fraud. 
In a little while, finding his marriages were not pleasant to his 
parents he provides for himself a separate home. So soon was 
the ten of Isaac and Rebekah bereft of both their sons ! Isaac 
was obi and blind and burdened with other infirmities. Rebekah 
herself was no longer young, and the joys of her life were bein-, 
turned into bitterness. In seeking to promote the prosperity of her 
son and the good of the household, she had made a misstep and 
brought sorrow and misfortune on all. 

, -^ t ! 1, k s P° int T the 1 recordofRebek ah ceases. In all probability 
she died before Jacob returned from the East, but the sacred his- 
torian fails to give any account of either her death or burial Is 
■t possible, after all, that she died with a broken heart? Jacob did 



58 Women of the Bible 

not return to visit her while in Haran. When he did come we 
have no record of his having made inquiries about her, nor did he 
seek her grave. When he came to his more sober moments, did he 
not in his heart of hearts condemn the efforts which she had put 
forth for him, and did it not weaken his affection for her ? On his 
wav to Bethel, Deborah, Rebekah's nurse, died, and was buried 
there and great mourning was made for her. How she was trans- 
ferred from Isaac's family to Jacob's we do not know, but more 
than likely when Rebekah died. She may have gone back to 
Haran to meet them, or have found him after his return to his own 
land When Jacob comes to die (Genesis 49: 31), he reveals to 
us incidentally the fact that his mother, Rebekah, along with his 
father, Isaac, was buried in the cave Machpelah. 

'•Her death was in all probability one of peace and calm, holy 
reliance on the infinite mercy of God. He had chastened, but in 
the midst of chastisement had mercy ; the fury of Esau had been 
turned aside, Jacob had been saved, and peace prevailed in the 
household of Isaac. Her earthly idol removed from her sight, 
we mav well believe that Rebekah returned to her domestic duties 
with that singleness of purpose and uprightness of heart which had 
marked her earlier years. The temptation to turn aside, the lov- 
ing mercy of the Eternal had remained, and the mother, even while 
he & r heart bled, must have pronounced the mandate just. If in her 
youth, before the knowledge of the God of Abraham had been 
imparted, she had felt with her brother, 'It is the Lord, we cannot 
speak unto thee had or good,' would she not-now that long years 
had been passed in his service-have felt even in her affliction, 
is the Lord,' and without murmur or complaint submit herself 

t0 The W1 following poem is a picture of Rebekah's farewell to 
Jacob as he leaves home to avoid his brother's anger : 

"And must thou go, my darling son? 

Light of thy mother's eyes; 
Her brightest hopes of future bliss, 

Her dearest earthlv pride? 
How many thoughts at this sad hour 

Are thronging on my mind, 
To draw more tight the cords of love 

Around my heart entwined. 
For thou wast ever at my side, 

A comfort and a stay — 



Rebekah — the Managing Woman 69 

Thy brother like a roaming deer 

A wanderer far away. 
And I had thought in 'death's dark hour 

fo know that thou wast near, 
To have thy soft ami soothing tones 

Fall sweetly on my ear, 
To cheer me through the darksome road 

Which leadeth to the grave, 
And that thy hands would lav me low 

In dark Machpelah's cave. 
But thou must go — no more mv ear 

Shall hear thy gentle tone; 
And I must live through weary years 

^Sad, childless, and alone. 
Xo light from thee shall dissipate 

Death's dark and fearful gloom; 
And strangers' hands shall coldly lay 

Thy mother in thy tomb. 
Nay, shrink not thou, my darling boy, 

Nor tremble with a dread; 
The blessing only rests on thee, 

The curse is on my head. 
Mine is the sin and punishment ; 

God's benison is thine ; 
O'er thee will heaven's dews be spent, 

Earth yield its corn and wine; 
Nations and tribes before thy feet 

Shall bend the humble knee, 
Thy brother's tribe and kindred all 

Be bondsmen unto thee. 
This have I gained for thee, mv son : 

Who blesseth thee, is blessed;' 
And him who dares to curse thy soul, 

On him shall curses rest. 
And when thy brother's rage is cooled, 

His anger died away, 
And from thy father's house 

No longer need'st thou stav, 
What though I may not see thy face 

Or hear thy loving tone, 
One comfort still is left to' me— 
I bear the curse alone." 

"The managing, self-reliant Rebekah, ready to do her full 
share in every emergency, and to run before any occasion with her 
busy planmngs, is not a character of patriarchal ages merely 
tvery age has repeated it, and our own is no exception There 
are not wanted among us cheerful, self-confident, domestic man- 
agers, who might take a lesson from the troubles that befell the 
good-hearted but too busy and officious Rebekah in consequence 
of the success of her own schemes." 



&adf)el===ti)e Pelobeb 



times a transfiguration; sometimes a *°W J**™**: u torm; some times 
tears, a place of weeping; a de se t o sa , s ' Commonness or 

place, dull, pendulum life. So be it. It is not mine ^^ ^^ ^^ 



»acfjel— tfje JBetobeb 



ONE hundred years before the period of which we now 
write, Eliezer, the head servant of Abraham, was near 
the city of Nahor, seeking a wife for Isaac. The mar- 
riage of Isaac and Rebekah was as nearly the type of Christian 
marriage as anything of which we have record, in these early 
times. Xo other wife ever shared his heart or his home. It was 
very important to Abraham that his son should be properly mated, 
as he was the heir of the promises which God had made. While 
they were not of the highest moral excellence, he knew the value 
of the stock from which they came, and a wife from his own people 
would be infinitely better than any of the heathen women by whom 
he was surrounded. 

From this union came twin boys, Jacob and Esau. The latter 
was the first to enter the world in the same birth. So far as the 
birthright privileges were concerned, this was as good as a large 
number of years would have been. In his providential dealings 
with the world, God does not seem to have attached any special 
importance to priority of birth. The righteous Abel is the young- 
est son of Adam; Abraham of Terah ; Jacob of Isaac; Joseph is 
the youngest but one of Jacob's twelve ; Ephraim is the youngest 
of Joseph's sons; Moses is the youngest of Amram's son's; David 
is the youngest of Jesse's sons ; and Solomon is the youngest of 
David's sons. These sons of Isaac were born most likely when 
they lived at the well of Lahai-roi. Isaac was probably about forty 
years of age when he was married, and these sons were born when 
he was about sixty. The record in Genesis 25 : 21 would seem to 
indicate that their birth was supernatural. The wife was super- 
naturally informed that her offspring should be the founders of 
two nations, and that the elder should serve the younger. These 
facts must be considered when we come to make up our minds as 
to the judgment which should be pronounced upon her in her 
efforts to aid Jacob in securing his birthright. 



j. Women of the Bible 

As the boys grew to manhood, there seemed to be a wonderful 

differed in \hefr natures. One appears to partake more of the 

tntle retiring manner of the father. He is patient, prudent, sub- 
gentle retmngn home and the occupatIons an d 

? w«me the chief of a predatory tribe; yet a man of generous 

er:f f f to ^.z^™%ZK. 

gg un er^SencfofTesrt impulse, have.no steadiness 
„? haracter They are distinguished by an imposing directness 
o conduct the very opposite to anything deceitful or cunning 
&#S f eehng ^^£ S^ 
Stitlt S: senSlty^nd palsion, ieading to acts of vio- 

H^Stf SeTunleSnds that the elder is to serve 
the y unge ,' and S o she proceeds to secure the birthnght blessing 
t/jacol. . She makes *^£^&J£°£; 
JSffK £ St. wtm he found almost faming ; he 
SI advantage of his weakness anci for a« ^ 

jT d "t ltT e of° h - t ^rt cheS h^r nusU and 

T'Zt^ %£*£££ P-S Sfcol'- resources 
t unl mi e and we are never justifiable in resorting to wicked 

fe fulfilled* vet the natural punishment of the action ionow 



Rachel — the Beloved 75 

way to Padan-aram, to his father's kindred, there to seek and meet 
and woo the wife appointed for him. 

When Esau saw how he had been deceived by his brother, he 
meditated killing him. The words were told the mother, and 'she 
urged Jacob to flee to her brother Laban until Esau's anger had 
passed away, which she knew it would, and then she would send 
for him again. In order to facilitate matters with the father and 
to frame a justifiable reason for Jacob's absence, she urges that 
if Jacob should, like Esau, marry of the women about her, "what 
good shall my life do me?" Good, easy, unsuspecting Isaac is 
satisfied with the forethought and planning of his wife, so he calls 
Jacob, commissions him to go forth and find a wife among his 
kindred, and invokes the divine blessing upon him. Eittle did 
that mother know it would be twenty or more long years before 
he would return, and that she would never see his face again. 

Jacob now starts from Beersheba for Haran, a journey of 
some four hundred and fifty miles. The route was through a 
country in many places desert and savage, and in others danger- 
ous from hostile tribes that dwelt in or ranged through it. He 
went out alone without a beast to carry him or a servant to attend 
him, and with no accommodation save his "staff" as he afterwards 
tells us. He may have stolen away secretly, without any retinue, 
and have shunned the frequented path in order to escape the vigi- 
lance of his brother, whom he had reason to fear would take his 
life. Who is this solitary traveler striding on from the way of 
the southern wilderness? His loins are firmly girded, a staff 
assists his steps, and naught else with him, unless it be his small 
wallet that contains a little oil, some bread, and a few hard dates. 
This is no common man. Mighty destinies hang around his head. 
A special and peculiar providence watches over him. Angels 
bend from their starry heaven to look upon him. It is Jacob, the 
son of the wealthy Isaac, the undoubted heir of glorious promises, 
the chosen and loved of God. And how is it thus with him ? The 
servant of Abraham traveled this way before, bent on the same 
journey with ten laden camels and many men. Could not even one 
camel, one ass, one servant be spared for Isaac's son? Alas, he 
flees for his life and must leave no track behind him. Hence he 
goes alone, stealthily, and poor." 



yf t Women of the Bible 

"His reflections on this journey must have been pungent in 
the extreme. It must have been with many a bitter pang that he 
prosecuted his journey. He cannot but feel that he himself has 
been the architect of his present lonely, destitute, and perilous 
condition. Had it not been for his criminal impatience and the 
inful stratagem to which it led, he would not probably have 
excited his brother's hatred or subjected himself to exile from the 
home of his childhood. We here behold the heir of promise, in 
whom all the families of the earth would be blessed, a forlorn 
wandere banished from his father's house, his whole inheritance 
Ws staff in hand. Oppressed with a desolating sense of his lonel t- 
nes and inwardly pained with the compunctious visitmgs of his 
faumfiu conscience, he must often have asked himself on his 
rlrearv route 'Why am I here?' 

"Now we begin with Jacob in earnest. Life is spared but is 
the punishment evaded? The supplanter has apparency suc- 
ceeded whereas he has but begun the discipline of purification and 

finement; he has gone at his mother's bidding, but instead 
hnvintf escaped God, he has run more consciously and completely 
too his hand Here also is a mystery, black as a night cloud and 
yel „o without some wealth of stars in all its appalling gloom 
Tacl had undertaken this journey on his mother's advice, with a 
Sow policv of allowing Esau's anger to subside She was mini- 
miz Z providence into a local incident ; she had undertaken too 
Z h We cannot put our arms around the horizon ; we are under 
"even feet at the most. Rebekah little knew about the door he 
was oPeuing when she bade her son goodby. She opened the 
mTverse f he supplanter has gone to meet Laban ; he will meet 
e Lord before he meets Laban. God is waiting at the sleeping 
pace and the revelation is already prepared. We require the 
darkness for the revelation of some things ; we do not see the stars 
whl the sun is blinding us; we speak flippantly of the day, we 

^^flighSdon the place," not of his own purpose, but in con- 
sequence of a providential ordering. His V?*^£g£ 
bad built an altar here many years before. It was new ^Bethel 
some eight miles north of Jerusalem, and about fifty-five miles 
from the Place where he started. It was probably toward the 
hi d day o'f his journey that he reaches this place. He no doubt 



Rachel — the Beloved 77 

intended to reach the city before sunset, but delayed beyond his 
expectations ; and, finding the gates shut upon his arrival, he was 
under the necessity of lodging in the open field, in the suburbs of 
the city. Travelers are compelled to do so even to this day. It 
was no hardship for him to take a stone for a pillow, for the 
inhabitants of Syria and Palestine do that every night. Sleeping 
in the open air without even a bush for a shelter, is no uncommon 
thing. He unbinds his girdle, takes a little of his hard fare, drinks 
some water from the brook, and lies down, but not to sleep. God 
does not mean he should do that. No doubt he has kept this man's 
thoughts busy with his past life. It is not likely that Jacob com- 
mended his soul to God, for he did not know God was in that 
place. The light which had been kindled in the mind of Abraham 
had lost some of its fullness and clearness in reaching Jacob. 
Here is a picture of many a young man who has left home and 
gone away from God, and done that which he would willingly 
forget. But as God forsakes none of his children, so he was near 
to this man and began to prepare him for the destiny which awaited 
him. From a pillow of stones may come our brightest visions. 
Paul, confined in the Roman dungeon, saw the crown of life laid 
up for him. When Stephen was stoned, he saw the heavens 
opened and Jesus on the right hand of God. 

As he lies there half asleep, the hills upon which he has 
gazed reappear one upon another like the steps of a ladder, and 
the angels are traveling up and down the luminous path before 
him. It was a visible symbol to him that, notwithstanding his 
apparent loneliness, communication was still opened between earth 
and heaven. "Jacob had thought himself alone ; the vision peoples 
the wilderness. He had felt himself defenseless ; the vision mus- 
ters armies for his safety. He has been groveling on earth with 
no thoughts beyond its fleeting goods ; the vision lifts his eyes 
from the low level on which they have been gazing. He had been 
conscious of but little connection with heaven ; the vision shows 
him a path from his right side into its depth." Standing above 
that ladder is a visible form, which savs to him, "I am the Lord 
God of Abraham, thy father, and the God of Isaac: the land 
whereon thou liest, to thee will I give it, and to thy seed ; and thy 
seed shall be as the dust of the earth, and thou shalt spread abroad 
to the west, and to the east, and to the north, and to the south: 



7g Women of the Bible 

and in thee and in thy seed shall all the families of the earth be 
blessed And, behold, I am with thee, and will keep thee n all 
places whither thou goest, and will bring thee again into this land ; 
for I will not leave thee, until I have done that which I have 
spoken to thee of. And Jacob awaked out of his sleep, and he 
said Surely the Lord is in this place ; and I knew it not. And lie 
was' afraid" and said, How dreadful is this place tins is none 
other but the house of God, and this is the gate of heaven. And 
Jacob rose np early in the morning, and took the stone that he 
had put for his pillows, and set it up for a pillar, and poured 01 
unon the top of it. . . . And Jacob vowed a vow saymg 
God will be with me, and will keep me in this way that I go and 
will give me bread to eat, and raiment to put on so that I come 
Tgain to mv father's house in peace; then shah the Lord be my 
God: and this stone, which I have set for a pillar, shall be God s 
house : and of all that thou shalt give me I will surely give the 

«IHs worthy of notice how moderate Jacob's wishes are for 
hmiself; how low the personal ambitions of the man who had 
daTed so much for the great future. All that he asks is to be sup- 
plied with what is absolutely and indispensably necessary, food, 
however hardly earned, so that it sustains life ; clothing, however 
coarse so that it but covers his nakedness. He is ready to submit 
o every pri-ation and suffering, so that he may be sure that he 
haU eventually return in peace to his father's house. What a 
chapter is this for those who go forth even in our day to battle 

"" "In onTSht how much is born in that soul ! The sentiment 
of reverence, awe of the divine, a conviction of the reality of God 

nd an invisible world, and the beginning of that great expenmen 
by which man learns practically that God is his father. For r the 
outset every human being's consciousness of God must be just of 
this sort Have I a Father in heaven? Does he care for me? 
Will he help me? Questions that each man can only answer as 

a b dii by castingjhmself upon God in a "-tter-of- ax .prac- 
tical way, in the exigencies of this present he. And this history 
is more valuable because it takes man m his earlie, ■ stages of 
imperfection. We are apt to feel that it might be safe for Paul 01 

Taiah or other great saints to expect God to befriend them; but 



Rachel — the Beloved 79 

now a poor, uncouth shepherd boy, who is not religious., avows 
that, up to this time, he has had no sense of God, and yet between 
him and heaven there is a pathway and about him in his loneliness 
are ministering spirits ; and the God of Abraham and Isaac is 
ready to become his friend. In an important sense, this night- 
dream, this gracious promise of God to Jacob, is not merely for 
him, but for all erring, helpless, suffering sons of men. In the 
fatherly God thus revealed to the patriarch, we see the first fruits 
of the promise, that through him all nations should be blessed." 

On the morrow he starts forward on his journey with about 
four hundred miles to travel, but he starts forth a new man. He 
is not the same Jacob who, tired and weary and conscience 
stricken, lay down the night before with a stone for his pillow and 
the sky above him for his covering. The record says, "He lifted 
up his feet and came into the land of the people of the east." 
There were many days of travel before him ere he should reach 
the place of his destination, and much of uncertainty, danger, and 
fatigue would attend his way ; yet such was the influence of the 
divine promise and protection which he had just heard, that he 
proceeded on his journey with alacrity and joy. The effect of his 
feeling on the remainder of the journey is hinted at in the very 
brevity with which the story records it. A single verse tells the 
whole story: The joy of the Lord was Jacob's strength; it be- 
came as oil wherewith his soul being supplied, he was made more 
alive, nimble, and fit for action. He that is once soaked in this 
oil and bathed with Jacob in this bath of Bethel, will cheerfully 
do or suffer aught for God's sake." 

About the old well in Haran, shepherds are waiting with their 
flocks. In the East, wells are very valuable property and are 
usually covered to prevent their being choked up by drifting sand. 
It might have been that they did not desire to expose the well, 
that the shepherds did not water their flocks until all were 
assembled. When the well is private property, as this may have 
been, and in a neighborhood where water is scarce, it is sometimes 
kept locked to prevent parties from fraudulently watering from it. 
It has been conjectured that this was Laban's own well, and that 
the shepherds dared not open the well until Laban's daughter 
came with her father's flocks. As it was early in the day, Jacob 



gO Women of the Bible 

wondered why they were not watered and turned out to pasture, 
but they could not be until all the flocks were gathered. 

Jacob had learned from the shepherds of the welfare of his 
uncle, Laban. While he talked to them, Rachel, the daughter, who 
had been pointed out to him, came up with her father's sheep. 
This was no "unusual thing in that day and country. Much of the 
drudgery was placed upon the women, and is yet in much of the 
East. Among the Arabs and other nomadic nations, the care of 
the flocks devolves upon the women or the servants. Among some 
of the tribes it is the exclusive business of the young unmarried 
women to drive the cattle to pasture. 'These young women set 
out before sunrise, three or four together, carrying some water or 
victuals with them, and they do not return until late in the evening. 
Throughout the day they continue exposed to the sun, watching 
the sheep with great care, for they are sure to be severely beaten 
by their father should any be lost. These young women are, in 
general, civil to persons who pass by, and ready enough to share 
with them their victuals and milk. They are fully able to protect 
their flocks against any ordinary depredation or danger, for their 
way of life makes them as hardy and vigorous as men." 

'it was with feelings of special interest after this long and 
toilsome journey that Jacob looked upon the daughter of his 
mother's brother ; and in proffering his aid to water the flocks, he 
was influenced by a warmer feeling of kindness than he would 
have manifested to any other strangers. As this work was per- 
formed twice a day, it was no little favor which he showed this 
gracious damsel in rolling away the stone and watering the flocks. 
In accordance with the simple manners of the times he kissed his 
cousin and the tears found their way down his cheek. The emo- 
tions which agitated his heart were mingled with sorrow of the 
past and thanksgiving for the joys of the present. Everything 
about him seemed to call up tender memories of bis mother, whom 
he dearlv loved, and who as earnestly loved him. Rachel herself, 
in all her maiden beauty and innocence, was a reminder of the time 
when the servant of Abraham came to that same country and 
found his mother. These very flocks belonging to her brother 
called up the same image. From this scene he might pass in 
memory to his own circumstances, why he was here in a distant 
land among strangers, people whom he had never seen before, here 



Rachel — the Beloved 81 

for a particular purpose and without those means usually con- 
sidered essential to success. With all the memories of the past 
pressing upon him, increased by the wonderful experiences 
through which he had passed at Bethel, is it any wonder that the 
historian represents him as giving vent to the burden of his heart 
through a flood of tears? 

No doubt this conduct on the part of a stranger surprised 
Rachel; but when he had relieved his heart by his outburst of 
grief, he tells her that he is Rebekah's son, her own cousin. Over- 
joyed by such news, she runs at once to communicate with her 
father. When Laban hears the joyful story he runs to meet him 
and embraces him and brings him to his house. He relates to 
Laban the incidents of his journey and the purpose for which he 
is here. If the opinion of some commentators be true, it must 
have been nearly one hundred years since Rebekah had gone out 
from her home, but her memory must have been enshrined in that 
of her brother as well as cherished by his children, for Jacob was 
so warmly and delightfully welcomed simply because he was 
"Rebekah's son." During this time, Laban had grown to man- 
hood. As husband and father, he had other calls upon his heart 
but the memory of the sister of his childhood, the companion of 
his early years, had remained strong as if no absence had come be- 
tween them. This man had traits of character which were narrow 
and hard, but his affection for his long-absent sister revealed a 
good side of his nature. Would there have been such a friendly 
interest if their early youth had not been passed in confidence and 
faithful affection? 

Two daughters, Leah and Rachel, blessed this home of Laban 
I he characteristics of these two are less vividly given than those 
of the patriarchal women. They are not sharply defined char- 
acters like the others. They were Jacob's wives, and mothers of 
the twelve tribes of Israel. The sacred historian says, "Leah was 
tender-eyed, and Rachel beautiful and well favored." Some sup- 
pose the word translated "tender" does not signify weak as is 
usually thought, but soft and delicate, and that her eves were her 
only good feature, but her younger sister was of exceeding beauty 
m other respects. It is more than likely, however, that it was some 
natural blemish, or some distemper of the eye which greatly in- 
jured the countenance. Jacob had been here in this family about 



82 Women of the Bible 

a month. During this time he had employed himself about his 
uncle's business, but nothing had been said about any wages. It 
was Laban's place to speak and not Jacob's. Accordingly, Laban 
intimates that he does not want to take advantage of his relation- 
ship to obtain gratuitous services from him. Tell me what shall 
thy wages be?" This served to bring out a declaration of his 
love for Rachel. "I will serve thee seven years for Rachel, thy 
younger daughter." 

All this seems very unlike our modern customs, but it was, 
and is yet, in keeping with the habits of the eastern world. ^ Jacob 
offered his services, for he had no goods which he could give the 
father for his daughter. The custom was not for the bride to 
bring a dower to the bridegroom, but for the bridegroom in a 
sense to purchase of the father the girl whom he intends to marry. 
Among the Bedouins, "when a young man meets with a girl to 
his taste, he asks her of her father through one of his relations ; 
they now treat about the number of camels, sheep, or horses, for 
the Bedouins never save any money, and their wealth consists only 
in cattle. A man that marries must therefore literally purchase his 
wife, and the fathers are most fortunate who have many daugh- 
ters. They are the principal riches of the family." 

The custom for an unprovided young man to serve the father 
whose daughter he sought in marriage, has been found by trav- 
elers to exist in many countries distant from each other. What 
Jacob offered therefore was in keeping with the custom of the 
times. Buckhardt, in his "Travels in Syria," relates the following 
among other similar facts : "I once met a young man who had 
served eight years for his food only; at the expiration of that 
period, he obtained in marriage a daughter of his master, for 
whom he would otherwise have had to pay seven or eight hundred 
piastres. When I saw him, he had been married three years, but 
he bitterly complained of his father-in-law who continued to re- 
quire of him the performance of the most servile offices without 
paying him anything, and thus prevented him from setting up for 
himself and family." 

Laban concedes that it is better to give her to Jacob than to 
another man, and asks him to remain. The whole affair is man- 
aged without any consultation with the maiden at all. Her likes 
and dislikes need not be taken into the account. The whole trans- 




711 



■ ■■. ■■ V'-' 



■HBHH 







w 

u 

« 
A 

O 



Rachel — the Beloved 83 

action is a business-like arrangement on the part of the father. 
'The propriety of giving a female in marriage to the nearest 
relative who can lawfully marry her, is to this day generally 
admitted among the Bedouin and other Oriental tribes. Jacob 
was first cousin to Laban's daughters, and according to existing 
Arab usages, he had the best possible claim to one of them in 
marriage. Esau had perhaps a preferable claim to the other 
daughter; but Jacob himself, a younger brother, had an unques- 
tionable claim to Rachel, the younger daughter of Laban; and 
therefore, independently of his affection for her, it was quite in 
the customary course of things that he should apply for Rachel 
in the first instance. Among the Arabs at the present day, a man 
has exclusive right to the hand of his first cousin. He is not 
obliged to marry her, but she cannot be married to another without 
his consent." 

It was right in Jacob to make such a proposition as he did, but 
if Laban had possessed the generosity and friendship which his 
word seemed to have expressed, he would have given him the 
" object of his choice without compelling him to work seven years 
for her. He seems to have studied only his'own private interest. 
Here is a poor man, his own nephew, son of his own sister, and 
who could only talk of promised blessings which sometime he 
should inherit. Laban lived more bv sight than by faith, and 
determined to make the most of his opportunity. Abraham's 
descendants seemed to incline toward his family^ and he must 
profit by their inclinations. Most likely Jacob had abandoned the 
idea of any speedy return to his own country, or he would not have 
contracted for so long a period. 

Finally seven years have passed away, and the time seemed 
to Jacob but "a few days for the love he had for her." He asks 
for the fulfillment of the contract, and his affianced wife may now 
be given him. The wedding was arranged for and the accustomed 
feast provided. "According to the custom of those Eastern na- 
tions, the bride was conducted to the bed of her husband with 
silence, in darkness, and covered from head to foot with a veil 
circumstances, all of them favorable to the wicked, selfish plan 
which Laban had formed to detain his son-in-law in his service 
Leah is accordingly substituted in place of her sister. And he who 
by subtlety and falsehood stole away the blessing intended for his 



§4 Women of the Bible 

brother, is punished for his deceit by finding a Leah when he 
expected a Rachel. He who employed undue advantage to arrive 
at the right of the firstborn, has undue advantage taken of him in 
having the firstborn put in the place of the younger. He who 
could practice upon a father's blindness, though to obtain a laud- 
able end is in his turn practiced upon by a father employing the 
cover of the night to accomplish a very unwarrantable purpose. 

Of course Jacob was deceived, and he complained to Laban. 
Either Laban wanted to retain the services of so faithful a helper 
a little longer, and was sure his love for Rachel was so strong he 
would consent to serve longer for her ; or he was anxious to make 
an arrangement for the daughter who was not likely to have 
suitors He thought of the example and customs of the people 
when he says, "It must not be so done in our country to give the 
younger before the firstborn." All this, however should have 
been considered before he made the contract with Jacob which, 
having been made, should have been sacredly kept. Mr Roberts, 
in speaking of the marriage customs in India, says : When the 
eldest daughter is deformed, or blind, or deaf, or dumb, then the 
younger may be given first; but under other circumstances it 
'would be disgraceful in the extreme. Should any one wish to 
alter the order of things, the answer of Laban is given. Should 
a father, however, have a very advantageous offer for a younger 
daughter, he will exert all his powers to get off the elder ; but 
until this can be accomplished, the younger will not be married. 

We pity Jacob because of this cruel deception, and yet God had 
a purpose in it all. "Jacob has left home as a deceiver-how will 
he be made to feel that? Jacob himself will be deceived as he has 
deceived his own father. Judgment cannot be avoided, or evaded 
eluded, bribed, or deprived of its terrific but righteous force and 
claim. Jacob goes out and is himself dece.ved-the only intel- 
ligible wav by which he can be taught the wickedness of deceit. 
Yet how surprised we are when we are made the victims of our 
own policy. Jacob's countenance was a picture; Ins face was 
marked all over with signs of amazement that he of all living 
creatures, should be deceived. We do not like to be paid m our 
own coin : it does not enter into our minds that we have to reap 
the produce which we have sown. How soon we forget ourselves ! 
The mark of the supplanter was upon every feature of Jacobs 



Rachel — the Beloved 85 

face; he was a vagabond on the face of the earth; he had himself 
run away from the deception of his own father, and behold he 
says, 'What is this that thou hast done unto me?' The beautiful 
innocence that never put on skins that his hands might be hairy, 
asks Laban how it comes to pass that he, Jacob, of all guileless 
persons, should be deceived. Can you rob others without in turn 
being robbed? Can you sow bad seed and reap good crops? Is 
there not a God that judges in the earth?" 

The younger daughter is now offered, for seven more years of 
service. Jacob accepts and the two sisters are married about the 
same time. Although married to Leah, she is not loved as is her 
sister. Her appearance was not prepossessing, and, in addition 
thereto, she must have consented to the imposition practiced upon 
Jacob, otherwise it could not have been so successfully carried out 
She saw that she did not have the same place in her husband's 
affections as did Rachel, and to compensate for this, the Lord 
gave her children. Leah seems to have entertained a warm affec- 
tion for Jacob, and hoped that in due time he would reciprocate 
this. The names given to the first, second, and third child indicate 
this, and m the birth of the fourth she seems, to some extent to 
have realized her wish and to have witnessed the softening of 
Jacob's heart toward her, for she says, "Now will I praise the 
Lord." 

Rachel was not pleased when she saw her sister bear children 
and she, although his favorite wife, had none The Jewish 
women were anxious to have children, and it was considered a 
very great misfortune to be barren. She may have envied her 
elder sister, because she feared she would secure an increased 
ascendency over Jacob because of her children. Rachel murmurs 
and pmes, and in her vexations cries out to her husband "Give 
me children or I die." Without them she will be as good as dead 
for there will be none to perpetuate her name. We are told that 
"Jacob's anger was kindled against Rachel." His reply shows that 
mild as he was his character was not wanting in force and energy' 
Am I m God s stead?" meaning thereby, Can I give you children 
it God hath withheld them? "Words brief, but impressively 
proving Jacobs individual dependence and trust in God and 
which ought to have subdued and humbled the discontent and 
envy ot his wife. But though they checked the querulous, they 



g6 Women of the Bible 

had no power to change the inward feeling ; she determined at all 
risks and at any sacrifice to obtain children also. She followed 
the example of Sarah and forced her husband, by increasing the 
number of his wives, to undergo all the miseries of a divided 

household." 

This man Jacob, who would have been happy with one wife, 
and who only desired one, was by force of circumstances driven 
to take four. His first wife being the wrong one, he could only 
reach the wish of his heart by taking a second. As this one has 
thus far proved childless, he was urged to take her handmaid and 
rear children by her, which should be considered as Rachel's own, 
and she would, in a sense, thus be placed upon an equality with 
Leah. This having been done, he could not refuse Leah the same 
favor. These handmaids belonged to the wives and were entirely 
free from the control of the husband, except as the wives con- 
sented to such control. Thus, by the wicked treatment of Laban 
and the unforeseen circumstances that grew out of it, this man 
became the possessor of four wives. 

Having served his uncle fourteen years for his two daughters, 
Jacob begins to think about returning home. At this period 
Rachel's wish is gratified, and she gives birth to a son whom she 
names Joseph. As soon as the child and mother are able for 
such a journey, Jacob makes known his wish to return to his own 
land. Rebekah had promised to send for him when his brother's 
anger was past, and there was a tradition among the Jews that this 
was done. Of course this was the land of his sojourn and not his 
inheritance, and it would not be strange that he should want again 
to look into the faces of his kindred. Laban was anxious for him 
to remain longer, and Jacob, seeing that he could not get away 
without making him an enemy, and desiring to provide something 
for his family so he should not return empty handed, it was agreed 
he should remain and a certain part of the increase of the flocks 
should be given to him. 

For a period of six years longer Jacob serves Laban. The 
flocks of the former increase and there is danger of conflict be- 
tween the parties. A command comes to Jacob to go back to his 
kindred, and God promises to go with him. He counseled his 
wives and thev were willing to go. They felt that, in his treatment 
of them, their father had dealt with them as slaves rather than 



Rachel — the Beloved S7 

children. With his family of twelve children, and with the flocks 
and herds which had come to him these six years, he starts back 
to his own land. Laban may attempt to detain him ; so while he is 
engaged shearing sheep three days' journey away, Jacob starts. 
tie may have supposed that, having six days the start, Laban will 
not interfere with him. This is the same kindly, prudent, affec- 
tionate man of whom we have seen before that he would rather 
avoid difficulty by skill than to meet active opposition. As soon 
as Laban hears of it, he starts after him, but is admonished in a 
dream not to interfere with Jacob or seek to compel him to go 
back. Laban says nothing about property, but complains that he 
had no chance to kiss his daughters. Had he known of the depar- 
ture, he would have sent him off with "mirth and songs." Worst 
of all, Jacob had stolen his gods! Laban is granted leave to search 
for them, and he may put to death any one in whose possession 
they may be found. 

Little did Jacob know that his beloved had done the deed. She 
had stolen them before they started. We do not know for what 
purpose, but most likely for superstitious uses. "It is clear that 
Laban knew and acknowledged the Lord, but with the worship of 
him he had mixed certain strange gods, or at least certain super- 
stitious images such as elsewhere occur in Scripture under the 
name of teraphim, and which appear to have borne the human 
figure and to have been used chiefly for purposes of divination." 
He did not find them in any tent, and finally came to Rachel. She " 
had been brought up in the school of deception and was a match 
for this father whose devious ways she, no doubt, had learned to 
know. She had these images concealed under the "camel's" furni- 
ture on which she sat in the tent. Professing to be too ill to rise in 
his presence, he excused her and did not examine her seat. When 
he did not find anything, Jacob, who no doubt had been an inter- 
ested spectator, could hold in no longer, and spoke out in no un- 
certain words showing how faithfully he had served Laban and 
how ungenerously he had been treated. We have more respect 
for this man when we see his indisposition to be trampled upon 
by the one who had been using him from the very time he first 
entered his tent, for his own personal aggrandizement. Laban 
could make no reply, but gives up the case and proposes that they 
make a covenant and erect a stone which shall be a witness, that 



88 Women of the Bible 

Jacob shall not take any other wives, and that they shall not pass 
this boundary to do any harm to each other. 

"Thus far, matters have gone prosperously, in the main, to 
Jacob ; but there is still trouble ahead. The news of Jacob's 
reappearance so near the land, as no longer a dependent but com- 
ing as a man of ample means and considerable retinue, may have 
awakened in Esau the slumbering spirit of revenge and induced 
him to have the trouble between them settled. The messengers 
sent out by Jacob to bear kindly greetings to Esau, returned say- 
ing he was coming with four hundred men. Whether they were 
coming with good or evil intent, Jacob was afraid, and began to 
make preparations to meet them as best he could. He divides his 
people and his flocks into two companies, and if one should be 
attacked the other may still escape. Rachel and Joseph were 
placed in the rear of all the others, because they were the dearest 
to him ; and having done all this, he retired to pray. Other prayers 
had been offered before this one, but this is the first recorded 
prayer, and is short, pointed, and suited to the occasion : "O God 
of my father Abraham, and God of my father Isaac, the Lord 
which saidst unto me, Return unto thy country, and to thy kin- 
dred, and I will deal well with thee : I am not worthy of the least 
of all the mercies, and of all the truth, which thou hast showed 
unto thy servant; for with my staff I passed over this Jordan; 
and now I am become two bands. Deliver me, I pray thee, from 
the hand of my brother, from the hand of Esau : for I fear him, 
lest he will come and smite me, and the mother with the children." 

Through the intervention of that God who had led him thus 
far, the storm passes over and the two brothers again become 
friends. He resided for a little time at Succoth, so named for the 
booths provided for his cattle. Soon after this, he crossed the 
Jordan and pitched his tent near Shechem, which afterwards be- 
came the center of the Samaritans. Here he bought a piece of 
ground from a family of Shechem, and obtained a footing among 
the people as a man of substance. His sons having made their 
name odious in the neighborhood, he receives a divine command to 
go to Bethel where he is to "make an altar unto God." The vow 
which had been made here years before, had never yet been ful- 
filled. His family were somewhat troubled with idolatry before 
they left Padan-aram, and the indications are that this had grown 



Rachel — the Beloved 89 

upon them in connection with the heathen people about Shechem. 
Before they would be in good condition to build this altar, they are 
required to give up all the gods that are among them of every 
design, earrings and other superstitious symbols and charms, and 
they were buried under the great oak at Shechem. When this 
was all done, Jacob performed his vow by building an altar. 

There was a remarkable death took place here. Deborah, the 
old nurse of Rebekah, having followed her mistress while living, 
concluded to spend her last days with Jacob, her favorite son. She 
had been given to Rebekah when she had left her home to become 
the wife of Isaac. When she was transferred to Jacob's house- 
hold, we do not know. One conjecture is that she was sent to 
Padan-aram to solicit Jacob to return, which is very doubtful. It 
is probable that Rebekah was dead and that Deborah was allowed 
to return home or to find a place with Jacob as she chose. That 
she was held in high repute is shown from the fact that the tree 
under which she was buried at Bethel, was called "the oak of 
weeping" on account of the great mourning which was made for 
her. God again appears to him here and renews the covenant 
which he had personally made him. 

His sojourn here no doubt was one of the brightest spots in 
his history. The memory of former merciful revelations was 
here graciously renewed to him ; his family and household were 
brought in apparent sincerity to the worship of the true God ; and 
in addition to this, the comforts of worldly prosperity were 
mingled in his cup. But an event soon occurred which taught him 
how closely connected in this vale of tears are our sorrows and 
joys. Bethel beheld him at the summit of worldly happiness; 
Bethlehem, the next town through which he passes, sees him in 
the depth of affliction, mourning the untimely death of his beloved 
Rachel." She had asked, "Give me children or I die." God heard 
her prayer, but at the expense of her life. When her firstborn 
came she called him Joseph, "for she said, The Lord shall add to 
me another son." So he did, but she died in giving him birth. She 
turned her dying eyes toward her child and, having named him 
Benoni, son of my sorrow, she expired. The loving father, how- 
ever, changed his name to Benjamin, "the son of my right hand." 
He deeply felt his loss. He loved her when he first met her, and 
of all his wives she was the only one, probably, for whom he felt 



90 Women of the Bible 

bound by any other tie than that of duty. In his later years, in 
his last discourse with Joseph., whije talking of other matters 
forty years after her death, he sorrowfully remarks, "As for me, 
when I came from Padan, Rachel died by me in the land of 
Canaan in the way, when yet there was but a little way to come 
unto Ephrath : and I buried her there in the way of Ephrath." 

"We all have our trials ; this was his trial, and it is the hardest 
to bear. What is the wrath of man, what is the loss of substance, 
of comfort, of health, compared with such trials, such loss as this? 
The deceitf ulness of Laban was hard ; but he had a spirit that rose 
above it, that trod it down, that turned it to good. The fierce 
threats of Esau were terrible ; but his heart was in God's hand ; he 
might relent, he did relent ; but the grave knows no relenting, the 
dead come no more back. All other loss is remediable ; but such as 
this, never, while the heart lives to suffer. Besides, as in this case, 
it is the most loved that is soonest lost. Too strong earthly love, 
and even love not all earthly, seems to blight its object. It is 
burnt up suddenly, as by the very warmth of our affection, or it 
wastes silently away before the glowing heat." 

Jacob did not leave the grave unmarked. He "set a pillar upon 
her grave; that is the pillar of Rachel's grave unto this day." 
This record was written probably three hundred years after the 
event. It remained for a long time after that, even to the days of 
Saul. Jeremiah, by a figure of great force and beauty, represents 
the buried Rachel weeping for the loss and captivity of her chil- 
dren, as the bands of exiles, led away to Babylon, pass near her 
tomb. Matthew also applies this to the slaughter of the infants 
of Bethlehem. While the original pillar may have disappeared, 
it is not impossible that tne structure which travelers see to-day, 
and which is called Rachel's tomb, may be upon that same spot. 
The structure there to-day is a small, square building surmounted 
by a dome and resembling the common tombs of sheiks and saints. 
A traveler says : "All around this simple tomb lie, thickly strewn, 
the graves of the Mussulmans. No slender pillars of wood or 
stone with inscriptions of letters of gold, are here ; not a single 
memorial which this people are otherwise so fond of erecting in 
their cemeteries. It seems to be sufficient that they are placed 
beneath the favorite sod ; the small and numerous mounds over 



Rachel — the Beloved 91 

which the summer traveler sometimes comes and weeps, mark the 
places of these graves." 

"The story of Jacob and Rachel has always had a peculiar 
interest. ; there is that in it which appeals to some of the deepest 
feelings of the human heart. The beauty of Rachel, the deep love 
with which she was loved by Jacob from their first meeting by the 
well of Haran, when he showed to her the simple courtesies of the 
desert life and kissetl her and told her he was Rebekah's son, the 
long servitude which he patiently served for her, in which the 
seven years 'seemed to him but a few days for the love he had for 
her,' their marriage at last after the cruel disappointment through 
the fraud which substituted the elder sister in the place of the 
younger, and the death of Rachel at the very time when,^ in giving 
birth to another son, her own long-delayed hopes were accom- 
plished and she had become still more endeared to her husband, 
his deep grief and ever-living regrets for her loss— these things 
make up a touching tale of personal and domestic history which 
has kept alive the memory of Rachel— the beautiful, the beloved, 
the untimely-taken-away— and has preserved to this day a rever- 
ence for her tomb." 



JWtriam-tfje Jftrsit $ropfjetei& 



"Sound the loud timbrel o'er Egypt's dark sea! 
Jehovah has triumphed — his people are free. 
Sing for the pride of the tyrant is broken ; 

His chariots, his horsemen, all splendid and brave- 
How vain was their boast, for the Lord hath but spoken, 

And chariots and horsemen are sunk in the wave. 
Sound the loud timbrel o'er Egypt's dark sea ; 
Jehovah has triumphed— his people are free. 

"Praise to the conqueror, praise to the Lord ! 
His word was our arrow, his breath was our sword. 
Who shall return to tell Egypt the story _ 

Of those she sent forth in the hour of her pride? 
For the Lord hath look'd out from his pillar of glory 
And all her brave thousands are dash'd in the tide. 
Sound the loud timbrel o'er Egypt's dark sea; 
Jehovah has triumphed— his people are free." 

— Thomas Moore. 



Jlttriam— tfje jfirsst $ropfjete&s 



ASSOCIATED with the birth and early history of Moses the 
Hebrew lawgiver, are pictures of two female characters 
his mother and his sister. The name of the mother' 
' Jochebed -''the glory of Jehovah"-gives a strong indication 
of the high religious faith that must have prevailed in her family 
Along with her comes the mention of Miriam, the sister, who must 
have been about eight or ten years of age when Moses was born 

^ 10tl , S T that the gift of Prophecy came upon her early in 
childhood. In confirmation of this, it is said Jochebed was one of 
the mid wives to whom Pharaoh gave command to destroy the 
children of Israel. When the child Miriam, whom tradition says 
was only four years old, heard this she exclaimed, "My parents 
shall have another son who shall deliver Israel out of the hands 
of the Egyptians." When in the course of time the mother found 
herself with child, she was alarmed lest it might be a boy and be 
slain ; but in a dream, the father was informed that God would 
protect the child. He was born without pain and the whole house 
was filled with sunshine. He was a very beautiful child and the 
parents called him "Tobias," "God is good," to indicate their 
thankfulness. And Amram kissed Miriam and said, "Now know 
1 that thy prophecy is come true." 

_ In the second chapter of the Book of Exodus, we have a plain 
simple statement of a most remarkable event in the history of this 
humble family. The hours of anguish and the desolation of heart 
which came to 4hem must be read between the lines "And there 
went a man of the house of Levi, and took to wife a daughter of 
Lev. And the woman conceived, and bare a son: and when she 
saw him that he was a goodly child, she hid him three months. 
And when she could not longer hide him, she took for him an ark 
of papyrus and daubed it with bitumen and pitch, and she put the 
child therein ; and lad it in the flags by the river's brink. And his 
sister stood afar off, to know what would be done to him And 
the daughter of Pharaoh came down to bathe at the river- and 



9(5 Women of the Bible 

her maidens walked along by the river side, and she saw the ark 
among the flags and sent her handmaid to fetch it. And she 
opened it and saw the child ; and behold, the babe wept. And she 
had compassion on him, and said, This is one of the Hebrews' 
children. Then said his sister to Pharaoh's daughter, Shall I go 
for a nurse of the Hebrew women, that she may nurse the child 
for thee? And Pharaoh's daughter said to her, Go. And the 
maid went and called the child's mother. And Pharaoh's daughter 
said unto her, Take the child away, and nurse it for me, and I will 
give thee thy wages. And the woman took the child, and nursed 
it. And the child grew, and she brought him unto Pharaoh's 
daughter, and he became her son. And she called his name Moses : 
andshe said, Because I drew him out of the water." 

What does all this trouble mean? There was a time when the 
Hebrews were in high favor with the Egyptians. It is supposed 
that the Pharaoh who reigned then was one of the Hyksos or 
shepherd kings, who had driven out the old kings and had assumed 
the government of the country, residing chiefly in the northeastern 
part of it. While Joseph lived, all seemed to go well ; but he died, 
and in the course of time these usurpers were driven out and the 
rightful dynasty resumed their sway. As a natural result, those 
who had sustained intimate relations to the usurpers, would be 
treated with coldness bv the new monarch. These people had in- 
creased so rapidlv that at this time they must have numbered 
three-fourths of a million. If anything should happen whereby 
the Hyksos should again attempt to get possession of the land, 
they would find in these Hebrews valuable allies. Such a number 
of foreigners, keeping up their own tribe distinctions, possibly 
having a kind of government of their own, with their own tradi- 
tional religion to influence them, might prove an element of very 
great weakness to him. Most of them, it is true, were shepherds, 
but some had become experts in working in metals and others had 
become proficient in writing. 

The king becomes somewhat alarmed and says to his country- 
men "The children of Israel are more mighty than we." He dare 
not attack them openly, so he seeks to accomplish his purpose by 
sly means. In order to destroy them, he made them slaves to the 
state and exacted from them severe service. They made brick 
and with them built cities for him. Overseers were appointed 



Miriam— the First Prophetess 97 

over them "who made the children of Israel to serve with riser 

intrick'andf 5f ^ 'T ' ^ ^ b0 " dage ' in m0rtar ^ 
in brick and m all manner of service in the field." A picture has 

been discovered on the walls of a tomb at Thebes which, while i 

Idea of 'wH T " ref6rS t0 the HebreWS ' Wi " *« ^us some 
dea of what this service meant: "I n this picture some of the 

laborers are employed in transporting the clay in vessels; some are 

working ,t up with the straw; others are taking the bricks out of 

the molds and setting them in rows to dry ; while others, by means 

each Jnd ; ,POn ^'^ fr ° m Whi ° h V °^ are -upended a 
each end, are seen carrymg away the bricks already dried ; while 

lei tfiTd Tv hcS f th ? m ' s °™ sanding, others sitting with 
tlieir uplifted sticks m their hands." 

A learned Egyptologist has translated some papyri which speak 
of a foreign race as employed on public works I„ one of them 
the writer, making a return to the superior officer says "I hZ 
obeyed the command which my master gave me to provide sus- 
tenance for the soldiers, and also for the Asperiu (by some sud 

S^f Wh ° "r^ St ° ne f ° r the ^at y B°eSi e en U o P f 

In Exodus 5 : 12, we read, "So the people were scattered abroad 

throughout all the land of Egypt " This doe, „nt ™ .if , 
t i,_ f f ._, , . . . s-n-"-- i ms aoes not convev the idea 

that they were making bricks in Goshen only. There is indeed 
reason to suppose that the usage in the working of the Israelites 
was to send them out in gangs or classes under overseers for a 
considerable time, making these gangs necessarily relieve each 

JSS T r : "%* "° ° bJeCti0 " t0 the °P ; "-n Ito som 
°,t t i g ; y aVe been sent even s ° far as Thebes for the 
sake of their work, where there was the most demand for i We 
may be certain that no considerations of humanity we ° 1 kel y to 

e P X IrTh^^t XTe^ S ^^ ^ ™ 
the numbers of the Sit s SSLTS^ **, ***" 

I LtosT ; f ° r T |i e m0re / h ?f «" oppressed, TeTor" h 
Israelites grew. They owed allegiance to another King "who 



98 Women of the Bible 

doeth according to his will in the armies of heaven and among the 
inhabitants of earth," and while for a time his face seemed to be 
turned away from them, he had not forgotten them. 

The king sought to have those who assisted at the birth of the 
children of the Hebrews to murder all the males as they were born ; 
but in this he was not successful, for they were most likely Hebrew 
women "who feared God and did not as the king of Egypt com- 
manded them, but saved the men children alive." Then came the 
command to all the people that any boy born to the Hebrews 
should be cast into the River Nile. Thus the people became agents 
of his in the consummation of this dreadful crime. The fearful 
cruelty implied in this command does not make it any the less 
probable. In the time of Abraham, the wives and children of 
foreigners were the property of the king. The Spartans mur- 
dered their helots when their increased numbers excited any 
alarm ; on one occasion they slew two thousand of them when they 
had offered themselves as volunteers at the invitation of the state. 

How long this edict lasted, we do not know, but it could not 
have been very long in force. Aaron was three years old at the 
time of Moses' birth, and it did not exist when he was born. It 
is not probable that it existed long after the birth of Moses, as it 
would have materially reduced the number of the Israelites. It 
was in force at the time Moses was born, and the very means 
used by the king to protect his own people and destroy the He- 
brews was, in the providence of God, used to bring a child into 
his own home, bring him up at his own court, train him in the 
manners, customs, and polity of the nation, and prepare him the 
better to lead out his own nation. By his very cruelty; he opened 
up the way for the man who was to be the great emancipator. 
Thus is the wrath of man made to praise him, and the remainder 
thereof he restrains. 

Let us look into one of these Hebrew households. Here reside 
a father and mother who have faith in God. A newborn babe 
comes into the family. Usually the advent of such a stranger would 
be hailed with joy, but now there is trouble and anxiety depicted 
in their countenances. The command has gone forth to throw the 
child into the Nile, where he shall be drowned or eaten by the 
crocodiles, and the parents must determine whether they will obey 
or disobev this roval edict. There was an additional reason for 



Miriam — the First Prophetess 99 

his preservation, for be was a child of surpassing beauty. "It is 
beautiful to God," as the expression stands in Stephen's speech, 
as if it were more than an earthly — yea, a heavenly beauty — that 
was meant. In the Epistle to the Hebrews we read, "By faith 
Moses, when he was born, was hid three months of his parents, 
because they saw he was a proper child ; and they were not afraid 
of the king's commandment." Are we to think, with Josephus, 
that in answer to prayer Amram had been informed some months 
previously, by special revelation, that this child of his was des- 
tined to deliver the oppressed people? Such may have been the 
case, but we have no mention of it. Shall we not rather conclude 
that they were willing to trust their child in God's hands, obey 
him rather than the king and take the consequences ? They were 
devoted, pious people who sought to honor God. What shall hap- 
pen to this child they do not know any more than parents to-day 
know what shall happen to their children ; but, come what may, it 
was their business to care for the child as best they could, and this 
they sought to do. To conceal the child for thirteen weeks was no 
easy task. The father and mother could keep their own counsel, 
but how prevent Aaron from betraying the secret, or Miriam from 
informing her friends of the new arrival ? There must be absolute 
silence and constant watchfulness concerning the matter. Those 
who sympathized with the purpose of the king, would be anxious 
to know 7 the condition of this household, and quickly report it. If 
the child should cry, how should it be hushed before the secret 
should be betrayed to some listening ear? If a rap is heard at the 
door, or if a visitor calls, how bear the painful suspense, how con- 
ceal her anxiety? To her friends and acquaintances she must do 
as we often do, assume a cheerful, pleasant countenance and make 
a fair show to the world ; but what a burden of care and anxiety 
must she carry concealed within! Another plan presents itself, 
and she turns to it. "She took for him an ark of bulrushes." 

The papyrus reed, from which we get our word "paper," was 
at that time very abundant along the shores of the Nile. "It has 
an angular stem from three to six feet in height, though occasion- 
ally it grows to the height of fourteen feet ; it has no leaves ; the 
flowers are in very small spikelets, which grow in thread-like, 
flowery branchlets whicrT form a bushy crown to each stem." 
From some part of this reed she made her box, daubing it with 



100 Women of the Bible 

mud from which the bricks were made to make the parts adhere 
and to make them smooth, and then covered it with pitch to make 
it water-tight. With many tears and prayers and with a tender 
caress, she places her child in this ark, puts the ark, not in the 
waters, but among the reeds on the bank, and committed it to Him 
who holds the king's heart in his hands. 

When Abraham journeyed on his way to Mount Moriah, he 
purposed to sacrifice his son, but he could only reconcile God's 
promises to him, and the command to do this deed, with the con- 
viction that God was able to raise him from the dead. What was 
in this good woman's heart to cheer her faith, we do not know. 
Whether she had any conception that such a thing would occur to 
her as did finally come to pass, we are not told. She prayed for 
divine protection and then stationed this little Miriam "afar off to 
see what would be done to him." Possibly this was the spot where 
the queen and her maidens were accustomed to assemble, and it 
was hoped their motherly instincts might be touched. ^ If too far 
away, she might not be able to see what happened, and if too near, 
she may seem to be specially interested in the child. What a 
responsibility rests in the hands of the little Jewish maiden ! How 
long she waits and watches, we do not know. During the long- 
hours of the night, no doubt, she keeps her sacred, lonely vigil. 
What momentous possibilities hang on the events of that night! 
The waters may float that child away ; animals may destroy him 
and the household shall be bereaved. All is quiet about her save 
the waters of the river, as they journey on in their course; tlie 
birds have gone to rest unconscious of the events that are trans- 
piring about them; the air is damp, the night chilly, but like the 
faithful sentinel who guards a sleeping army after a long, tedious 
march, this little one keeps her watch. As she thinks, for think 
she must, how her heart goes out to that little brother and the dear 
ones at home ! How gladly she would go to him and care for him, 
but that would betray her secret and endanger him. As she stands 
there hour after hour, an important link of the chain which God 
is making, how very slowly the night wears away ! At times her 
heart beats with anxiety, and then again almost ceases to beat. 
After a long, weary night, she breathes more freely, for the morn- 
ing is beginning to dawn ; after a time the rays of light push them- 
selves above the horizon, the birds begin to sing, the sunbeams 



Miriam — the First Prophetess 101 

come forth in their beauty, and her dread and loneliness have, for 
the most part, been driven away. 

As she looks and sees in the distance some Egyptians, for a 
moment she trembles with anxiety. These parties walk close to 
the river bank toward the spot where the babe has been hidden. 
They stop and find the ark, they open it, and a dim smile lights 
up the countenance. What shall this sister do ? She cannot return 
to her mother, for in her absence the child may be taken away. 
Possibly she recognizes this to be the king's daughter with her 
attendants. With the coolness and sagacity which belongs to the 
later Jews, and in the most unaffected way as though having no 
special interest in the boy's welfare, she says to this royal lady 
whose maids had found the ark, "Shall I go and call to thee a 
nurse^of the Hebrew women, that she may nurse the child for 
thee?" Strange to say, the royal daughter'accepts, shall we not 
say the divinely inspired suggestion of the Hebrew maiden, and 
says, "Go!" 

With what wild delight and with what dancing joy did that 
little girl who had kept that long night vigil, run to her mother 
and tell the story of the king's daughter and her attendants and 
the discovery of the child. With bounding heart she leads the 
mother to the royal maiden, and how the mother's heart must have 
leaped for joy as the king's daughter unconsciously gave back her 
own child with the instruction, "Take the child away and nurse 
it for me, and I will give thee thy wages." Did ever a woman 
enter upon any service with more delightful heart ? What wages 
did she want more than to realize that her own dear child was put 
back in her own arms by royal authority, and that his life should 
now be spared? 

"Who may attempt to describe the joy of Amram's household 
on that memorable night when to the happiness of having the 
child there was added the delight of feeling that their treasure was 
secure under the protection of the king's daughter? Who may 
tell of the thanksgiving that went up to God because he had 
crowned their confidence in him with such abundant blessing? 
And how would Miriam rejoice that now her tongue was let 
loose and she could tell to all around her of her little brother with- 
out endangering his life ! How she would recount again and again 
the adventures of the day and finish up in her ecstasy with a sono- 



102 Women of the Bible 

which was the prelude and prophecy of that glowing anthem 
chanted by her and her attendant maidens with timbrels and with 
dances on the Red Sea shore!" 

What but an overruling and directing Providence could have 
c successfully brought about these wonderful results? 'When 
you come to a great railway junction at which trains arrive from 
north and south and west in time to be united to another that is 
just starting for the east, and you see the connection made, nobody 
talks of a happy coincidence. There was a presiding mind guiding 
the time of the arrival of the train in each case, so that the junc- 
tion was reached by all at the required moment." To human ken 
there is no miracle in this early history of Moses. The events 
that happen to him come in their natural order and might have 
happened to anv other ; and yet how the hiding of the child m a 
particular spot, the coming of the princess, the happy suggestion 
of the sister, all converge to bring about the desired result! If a 
snarrow shall not fall to the ground without the Father's notice, 
£ he not in the life of each one of us to-day as certainly as m the 
past, guiding and overruling and controlling all events, however 
minute they may seem, for our good and his glory? 

We hear nothing more of this devoted sister until eighty, per- 
haps eighty-five, vears have passed, when we find her prominent in 
celebrating the overthrow of the Egyptians at the Red Sea. How 
these intervening years were spent, we do not know. While the 
bov Moses remained at his own home under the direction of his 
mother, the sister no doubt would be a very important factor m 
his life' would be his constant companion, his nurse, his protector, 
his friend When taken to the court of the king to receive the 
instructions which the adopted son should have, there was prob- 
ably less frequent communion between the members of this 
family and yet there is no doubt but frequent means of communi- 
cation 'were found. The fact that he was surprised when his own 
people did not recognize him as their deliverer, reveals to us that 
his own mind had made itself familiar with this purpose, and no 
doubt the sister knew of the aim he was placing before him and 
hoped to realize. We are told he was "educated in all the wisdom 
of the Egyptians," and Stephen reports him as "mighty in words 
and deeds'" The sacred history is very brief here concerning him, 
for the pen of the historian makes rapid strides ; but tradition fills 



Miriam — the First Prophetess 103 

up this gap by informing us that he was educated at Heliopolis 
and grew up there as a priest under an Egyptian name. He was 
taught the whole range of Greek, Chaldean, and Assyrian litera- 
ture. From the Egyptians he learned mathematics, to train his 
mind for the reception of truth. He invented boats and engines 
for building, instruments of war and of hydraulics, divisions of 
land, etc. He taught Orpheus, and was called by the Egyptians 
Hermes; he taught grammar to the Jews whence it spread to 
Phoenicia and Greece. He was sent on an expedition against the 
Ethiopians. He got rid of the serpents of the country to be trav- 
ersed, by turning basketfuls of ibises upon them. 

It is not at all unlikely that, as the relations of Moses, the 
family might have had special favors granted to them by those 
who had adopted him. If not, then they were subject to the same 
privations and to the same burdens as were the others. Miriam's 
relationship to Moses would give her prominence with her own 
people, while he was at the Egyptian court, and much more when 
he appeared as Jehovah's ambassador. Her association with 
Moses, her knowledge of men and things that she had acquired, 
added to her own intrinsic ability, made her a leader of promi- 
nence with her own people and among her own sex. During the 
time when the dreadful plagues were in the land manifesting the 
anger of an insulted God, she was there to comfort and encourage 
her own people and to aid her brothers in the work they were 
called to do. 

Events thicken. Moses makes known his purpose and is 
driven into Midian. After forty years of training and discipline 
and communion with God in nature's own temples, he comes back 
again with the hand of God upon him. Now comes the terrific 
combat which shall determine who is the true God, and after a 
bloody struggle which caused sorrow and wailing throughout the 
land, Moses comes off victorious. He is permitted to lead God's 
chosen host out of the land of bondage. The doors of their cruel 
servitude have been thrown wide open, their shackles broken off, 
and they go forth free men. 

Jehovah, after a long delay, has heard their complaints and 
answered with vengeance upon their oppressors. The divine hand 
leads them around the passes of the mountains until the midnight 



104 Women of the Bible 

hour finds them on the shores of the Red Sea. They supposed 
they were now safe, but a cry of terror comes up indicating that 
the chariots of Pharaoh are on the track. Consternation seizes upon 
the people. If captured and taken back, a fate more cruel than any 
thing they have yet suffered awaits them. Terrified and dis- 
heartened, they turn against Moses, their deliverer, and cry out, 
''Because there were no graves in Egypt, hast thou taken us away 
to die in the wilderness ? wherefore hast thou dealt thus with us, 
to carry us forth out of Egypt? Is not this the word that we did 
tell thee in Egypt, saying, Let us alone, that we may serve the 
Egyptians ? For it had been better for us to serve the Egyptians, 
than that we should die in the wilderness." 

The Lord, who never deserts his children, stood by Moses and 
commanded him to go forward. He stretches his rod, the symbol 
of divine power, over the swollen waters; the waters roll up on 
either side, and like walls of adamant they stay there until all 
of God's children have safely passed through. It was the dark 
hour of midnight, but the pillar of fire was there to reveal to them 
the right path. There was haste but no excitement, no confusion. 
They walked upon dry land. With hope mingled with fear they 
marched through this perilous deep. Mothers press their children 
closer in their arms as they gaze upon the walls on either side of 
them, held there by the hand of the Omnipotent. Not one of 
their number was left behind or fell into the hands of their foes. 
They reach the farther bank in safety. As they looked behind 
them they saw the Egyptian hosts, with exultant hearts, with 
waving banners and pealing music, following on their track. 
Their glory was but for a moment, for the hand that had held 
these restless waters, loosened its hold and the waves rolled back 
with redoubled fury and submerged them all, so "there remained 
not so much as one of them." For years had the Egyptian oppres- 
sors lorded it over these poor Hebrews. "They had bruised them 
with rods and beaten them with the scourge; they had strangled 
their children at the birth and had given their little ones to the 
maw of the crocodile ; they had governed them with hard bondage 
and exacted from them 'day labor, light denied' ; and for more 
than a century it seemed as if Jehovah heeded not ; but he had put 
the tears of the slaves into his bottle, and when the hour of doom 




FINDING OF MOSES 






i 



*■ 



Miriam— the First Prophetess 105 

rang out, for each of those diamond drops there was a victim. 
The retribution had been long in coming, but when it did come it 
was thorough." 

Like one who has been delivered from some terrible catastro- 
phe, some railway accident, some dreadful conflagration, stood 
these people on the shore of that memorable sea, on that eventful 
morning. They had been in the very jaws of death, and yet had 
been mercifully preserved. At the very moment when about to 
step over into the unknown future, a tender, strong hand had 
reached out and rescued them. Awe-stricken and subdued in the 
presence of this startling deliverance, "they feared Jehovah and 
believed Jehovah and his servant Moses." As the morning 
dawned, they saw the bodies of their slain enemies, who had sunk 
"as lead in the mighty waters," washed up by the returning waves 
of the eventful sea. As they had time to recover from the awe- 
stricken feeling and to consider the wonderful deliverance which 
had come to them, they burst forth into that exultant song of 
Moses which has rung through the ages "and which shall hold its 
place as the foremost song of praise until the day when it shall 
be surpassed by the freer and more fervent chorus of the song 
of the Lamb." When the revelator from the Isle of Patmos 
looked into the heavenly land and saw the victorious throng which 
stood upon the glassy sea "having the harps of God" in their hands, 
they sang "the song of Moses, the servant of God." Long before 
the grand old ballads of Homer were sung through the streets of 
the Grecian cities, or the foundations of the seven-hilled metrop- 
olis of the ancient world were laid by the banks of the Tiber, this 
matchless ode was chanted by the leaders of the emancipated 
Hebrews on the Red Sea shore. 

Moses and his brethren did not have all the rejoicing to them- 
selves. The women did not keep silent in the church. "Miriam, 
the prophetess, the sister of Aaron, took a timbrel in her hand and 
all the women went out after her with timbrels and with dances." 
And at the proper pauses in the grand song, the women came in 
with the chorus, accompanying the timbrel and the dance with 
the triumphant shout of deliverance: 

''Sing ye to the Lord, for he hath triumphed gloriously; 
The horse and the rider hath he thrown into the sea." 



106 Women of the Bible 

The union of Moses and Miriam as representative leaders in 
this public act of thanksgiving, at the beginning of the nation's 
history, is^the commencement of that due honor which, all the way 
down, is shown to women in spiritual things, an indication at the 
beginning of the Mosaic era of that spiritual equality of both sexes 
which is to prevail wherever Christianity holds sway. Joel relates 
the same teaching in his prophecy of the coming future. "On 
your sons and your daughters I will pour out my spirit and they 
'shall prophesy." And Peter, on the day of Pentecost, when the 
Christian dispensation is being ushered in, proclaims the wonder- 
ful outpouring of the spirit as the fulfillment of the time foretold, 
"On my handmaids in this day I will pour forth my spirit and 

they shall prophesy." 

There are reasons for believing that not only on this occasion 
but afterwards Moses and Miriam were united in the government 
and instruction of the people during the time when the laws and 
ritual were in process of crystallization. The sister who had been 
a mother to him, might have been consulted on all matters of 
administration through brotherly fondness alone, but other things 
indicate that it was done by divine arrangement, and that Miriam 
was as directly called of God to her place as was Moses. In the 
reign of Hezekiah, the prophet Micah represents the divine Being 
as thus addressing his people : "I brought thee up out of the land 
of Egypt, I sent before thee Moses and Aaron and Miriam (Mi- 
cah 6 : 4)'. The same power that commissioned Moses and Aaron 
as clearly approved her. In Exodus the inspired writer calls her 
"Miriam, the prophetess." At this period in the world's history, 
the office meant ''one inspired of God or the medium of God's 
communications and revelations to mankind ; it was the name ap- 
plied to all who declared God's will, who foretold the future, and 
even to great religious teachers. It occurs constantly in the Pen- 
tateuch in the general sense of one in communion with God and 
made the medium of God's communications to man." 

After the conclusion of the thanksgiving service at the Red 
Sea, Moses starts with his people for Mt. Sinai. He has a large 
concourse of people made up of women and children, and with a 
mixed multitude of camp followers who were more or less associ- 
ated with them in Egypt. The road was not new to him, for he 
had possibly been over a part of it when in Midian. These will 



Miriam — the First Prophetess 107 

sometime, no doubt, develop into a well-ordered nation, but, appar- 
ently, they are a weak, fretful, complaining crowd. Whatever goes 
wrong with them, the burden always falls upon the leader. No 
doubt he lias had the counsel and cooperation of Miriam and 
Aaron, but there comes a time when these fail him. He can with 
some difficulty bear the complaints and murmurings of the people, 
but when his own family speaks against him and defies his author- 
ity, his cup of anguish is full. It is the more painful because these 
two had been associated with him hitherto and had shared his 
confidence and his honor. The burdens he was now carrying- were 
not of his own choosing. He was not an ambitious man who 
sought preferment. When he was first commissioned to do this 
work, he urged his unfitness, and Aaron was appointed to help 
and to share the honor which otherwise would have been given to 
Moses alone. He was suffering and toiling, not for Moses, but 
for Jehovah. Perhaps no public man was more unselfish in the 
administration of affairs than was this man. So heavy had the 
burdens become that Jethro advised him to appoint judges to aid 
him in the management of affairs. If those who are members of 
his own family, and in whom he has especially confided, shall 
turn against him, how can he find fault with others who know but 
little of his motives or labors ? 

Miriam seems to lead in this rebellion against Moses, as she 
was the most severely punished. "They spake against Moses." 
The words of Miriam to Aaron, "Hath the Lord spoken only by 
Moses, hath he not also spoken by us?" indicate that these persons 
hitherto had possessed a divine call to their work. At this juncture 
it shows a feeling of envy, a spirit of detraction on the part of 
this sister. In her opinion, they belonged to the same family and 
were of as good blood as he ; they were older than he was ; Jehovah 
had made them leaders among the people and had given them 
positions of prominence ; by what authority should Moses conclude 
that he was entitled to more consideration at the hands of the pub- 
lic than they? It was the outcropping of that spirit which has 
cursed the church in all ages, the desire to exalt ourselves by 
debasing others. Had Moses been a self-seeking, ambitious man, 
who sought his own promotion at any cost, we could see some sort 
of excuse for such conduct ; but as it is, we see none. 



10g Women 'of the Bible 

The feeling seems to have been in her own mind for some 
time but the opportunity for a manifestation of it presents itself 
on the occasion of the entrance of Moses' wife into camp How 
much of this was a real grievance and how much pretended, we 
cannot at this distance tell. The record simply tells they spake 
against him "because of tile Ethiopian woman whom he had 
married " Who this woman was, is still an unsolved problem. 
Some suppose she was a second wife whom Moses married after 
the death of Zipporah herself, the daughter of Jethro. 

' She had been brought to Sinai only a few months before, in 
all human probability Miriam had never seen her until that time 
She was a foreigner, and this might not prepossess Miriam in her 
favor More than all other reasons, it might seem to her that he 
place of honor among the women, which had hitherto been granted 
to her as the sister of Moses, would now, in all human probability 
be -ranted to Moses' wife. It is hard to give up to another a post of 
honor which one has filled to satisfaction, and especially if we hink 
we are more competent to fill the position than the one who claims 
it • and if we wish to retain the place, we are very apt so to think 
Tethro his father-in-law, had already advised the appointment of 
Eenty judges, and his advice had been taken Hobab has been 
persuaded to go with them the remainder of the journey and be 
-eves to them" It looks to Miriam as though the new family were 
to have control, and his own people were to fall into the back- 

gr °lt tas easy for Miriam, in her frame of mind, to find reasons, 
and she found them, such at least as were satisfactory to her The 
brother who had been placed in high offic.a position and who 
should have discouraged such unsanctified ambition and stood by 
Moses, is weak, as usual, and yields to her stronger will. \\ hat 
nrnst the great-hearted Moses, who was conscious of his inno- 
cence of any attempt to sway authority over them or the people 
h who had sought to push aside this load of responsibility think 
of such conduct' How his heart must have sunk withm him to 
i^ktliTt beloved Miriam, who had so f hfully a ded^m 
in his tender years, should now, without a shadow of a reason 
r sip a" ns him and bid defiance to the law which he was sent 
to enforce ! We should have excused him if a righteous uid.gna- 
ion had found vent at this time. But he could afford to be 



Miriam — the First Prophetess 109 

silent when the One who appointed him understood him. The 
three were called to the tabernacle, and, having separated Aaron 
and Miriam from Moses, God speaks to them. "Hear thou my 
words; if there be a prophet among you, I the Lord will make 
myself known unto him in a vision, and will speak unto him in a 
dream. My servant Moses is not so, who is faithful in all mine 
house. With him will I speak mouth to mouth, even apparently, 
and not in dark speeches ; and the similitude of the Lord shall he 
behold: wherefore then were ye not afraid to speak against my 
servant Moses?" 

The Lord had indeed spoken by Miriam and Aaron, but not as 
he had spoken by Moses. He was both messenger and ruler over 
all God's house. He was in authority, not by his own arrangement, 
but by divine appointment. The act of these two was a great 
wrong against Moses, but was also a sin against God, because it 
sought to deprive Moses of that which God had put into his hands. 
Such conduct on the part of those in high official position must not 
go unpunished. When the cloud disappeared, the indications of 
Jehovah's displeasure were seen in the hideous leprosy which over- 
spread the entire person of Miriam ; on the handsome features of 
that magnificent woman came that filthy, loathsome disease which 
shuts its victims out of good society. It was a severe punishment, 
but the crime had been an aggravated one. It was the business of 
Aaron, the priest, to examine her and make known her disease. 
The very person who had aided and abetted her crime, was to 
pronounce the sentence upon her which should send her out of the 
camp and away from the society of those over whom she had 
exercised control. Aaron intercedes for her with Moses and 
Moses with God. The penalty was in part remitted, but some- 
thing is due to him whose honor has thus been slighted. "If her 
earthly father had shown himself to be displeased with her con- 
duct by doing something to her which could be speedily removed, 
she would then have felt so ashamed as to have hid herself from 
public view for a season ; so now that the mark of her Heavenly 
Father's indignation is upon her for her great offense, let her for 
very- shame remain apart for seven days, and after that let her be 
received again." For a week the people wait for the woman who 
has held such an exalted position among them but who, in an evil 
hour, made a great mistake. The position of Moses will no longer 



HO Women of the Bible 

be questioned, for it has received the divine endorsement in lan- 
guage that cannot be mistaken. 

We hear no more of this gifted woman until her work is done 
and she is called up higher. A period of forty years passes, con- 
cern ng which time we hear little of her or the people she repre- 
sents They have grievously rebelled against God and mistreated 
his servant, Moses, and for this they shall not be allowed to enter 
the earthly Canaan. It is a very sad period in their history, and 
the pen of inspiration is silent concerning it. Some have sup- 
posed that they spent their time in marching up and down these 
wadvs trying to find a way out of their present habitation but 
their eves were blinded and the exits were all hedged up Others 
suppose that, with Kadesh Barnea as a kind of center they wan- 
dered here and there as the needs of their flocks would demand. 
They all remain here until they die. One by one their numbers 
lessen ; as the days go by, the grave closes over them and they are 
.rone It must be a distressing period in the career of Moses Ot 
the host that left Egypt with him, his counselors and he pers 
nearly all have disappeared. He is growing old and will likely be 
kept out of the land of promise. During this transition period, 
some method of working, some form of government, no doubt was 
kept up and the authority of Moses and Miriam and Aaron still 
recognized. No doubt she faithfully aided him in the manage- 
ment of the people, guiding and leading her sisters as the interests 
of all required There would be no longer any question of rank 
or authority, the great affliction through which she had passed had 
disciplined her for the duties that awaited her. 

Periods of affliction, severe and hard as they may be will 
after a time have an end. The forty years of wandering, sad and 
painful as they must have been, are about to cease. The people 
who have been scattered up and down the wadys, carrying .or then 
families and their flocks, now hear the call to assemble. Many of 
these people who are left have been born here, and no doubt aie 
loath to leave the home of their childhood, unprepossessing 
though it mav be. Moses finds himself face to face with a new 
generation that has grown up since he left Pharaoh's dom.n.ons 
Will they have learned lessons of patience from the blunders of 
their fathers, or will they also prove disobedient children? Moses, 
no doubt, comes to this duty with a sad heart, remembering the 



Miriam — the First Prophetess 111 

thousands of his people who have disappeared since he left Egypt, 
and not knowing the trials that shall come to him with the new 
generation. 

But other misfortunes come to him at Kadesh while preparing 
for this universal movement — "Miriam died and was buried 
there/' Having had the benefit of her motherly counsel and guid- 
ance all his life, and her help during all these years of wanderings, 
it is with a sad heart that he and Aaron lay her away in the grave. 
In this hour of bereavement he will forget the unhallowed ambi- 
tions, manifested in the wilderness, and remember her faithful 
help from the hour when she watched his little form in the reeds 
by the Nile until the present hour. Never, perhaps, was a woman 
more honored by a noble brother, and never, perhaps, did a 
woman cherish such a brother more faithfully than did she. 

We know nothing more of her death, but we are sure she was 
ready to die. Save the one incident referred to, her record is clear 
and honorable, and her life is endorsed by the sacred writers. She 
no doubt could have said as did John Wesley to a lady who asked 
him how he would spend the intervening time if he certainly knew 
that he was to die the next night at twelve o'clock; he replied: 
"How, madam? Why, just as I intend to spend it now. I should 
preach this evening at Gloucester and again at five to-morrow 
morning; after that I should ride to Tewkesbury, preach in the 
afternoon, and meet the societies in the evening. I should then 
repair to friend Martin's house — he expects to entertain me — 
converse and pray with the family as usual, retire to my room at 
ten o'clock, commend myself to my Heavenly Father, lie down to 
rest, and wake up in glory." Just as surely was this woman found 
at her post, and for her "to live was Christ, and to die, gain." 

Josephus tells us that solemn funeral honors were paid to her, 
and that the nation tarried in mourning for her for thirty days. 
There is a tradition among the rabbinical writers that, because of 
having saved her brother's life at the River Nile, a spring of 
living water followed her through the wanderings in the wilder- 
ness, and from this the people drank; when she died, the spring 
became dry. It is a touching memento of the high esteem in 
which she was held by the whole nation. Josephus further states 
that, according to tradition, she was the wife of Hur ; but as the 
Scriptures are entirely silent, not giving even the remotest hint on 



112 Women of the Bible 

the matter, we shall prefer to think of her as an unmarried woman 
aiding her brother in the management of a great people, and with 
him commissioned of God to make known his will ; an example for 
all time that, in the selection of messengers to do his will, God 
knows no distinction of sex. 

One who reads the laws as given by Moses for the government 
of the Israelitish people, must be struck with the high honor and 
tender consideration everywhere paid to women. The more sad 
and desolate her condition, the more she is hedged about with 
protective influences. One of the most important peculiarities of 
the teaching of Moses is his care of family life. He sought the 
perpetuity of the family. What could more strongly show the 
delicate care of woman and the high regard paid to the family than 
the provision,-" When a man hath taken a new wife, he shall not go 
to war neither shall he be charged with any business, but he shall 
be free' at home one year, and shall cheer up his wife which he has 
taken " Among the Greeks a wife did not associate with her 
husband as an equal. Among the Romans the father had the 
power of life and death over his wife and children. Among the 
Tews the mother had an equal place with the father, and must be 
revered and honored as much as the father. "He that revileth his 
father and his mother" shall be put to death. Women taken in 
war were to be treated with a delicacy and consideration which 
we find nowhere else. In all the heathen nations, captive women 
were the slaves of their captors, to be used by them as they 
thought best. Says Moses, "If thou seest among thy captives a 
beautiful woman and hast a desire unto her that thou wouldst have 
her to wife then thou shalt bring her to thy house and she shall 
remain in thy house, and bewail her father and mother a full 
month ; and after that thou shalt go in unto her and be her hus- 
band and she shall be thy wife." If, at the end of this period he 
does not wish to marry her, he must give her her liberty and allow 
her to go where she pleases. 

His laws do not absolutely prohibit, yet they do discourage, 
polyo-amv Women servants could not be kept for the gratifica- 
tion of a temporary passion. The law gave to every concubine the 
rights and immunities of a legal wife. A man was not allowed to 
marry two sisters, for in so doing he would vex the first. Per- 
sonal" favoritism must not be allowed to influence the rights of 



Miriam — the First Prophetess 113 

children of different wives. In the considerations of adultery, the 
crime must be punished by the death of both parties, for both were 
equally guilty. There is a special promise made for the widow 
and her children. She shall not be afflicted; the forgotten sheaf in 
the field must be left for her ; her raiment must not be taken for 
a pledge. The daughters must not be given in marriage to the 
heathen. Concerning the daughters of Zelophehad, it was com- 
manded, "Let them marry to whom they will." Running through 
all these ordinances we see a high honor put on woman, a strong 
appreciation of her dangers, her duties, and her relations, which 
we are sure Moses did not learn from his associations with the 
Egyptian people. Do we not see through all this legislation the 
indications of a woman's heart, who could best know where pro- 
tection was necessary and who guided the judgment and heart of 
her brother, so that, in the best sense of the term, he has become 
the lawgiver of the ages? May not the high position given to 
women among the Jewish people in all history and through them 
the honor accorded her to-day, be due in good part to the faithful 
teaching and worthy example of this gifted prophetess of God 
who on the banks of the Red Sea led her sisters in their trium- 
phant song of deliverance? 



&utfH=tf)e foung Wtboto 



'Yet set she not her soul so steadily 
A We that she forgets her ties to work, 
B t her whole thought would almost seem to be 
How to make glad one lowly human hear ; 
For with a gentle courage she doth strive 
In thought and word and feeling so to live 
As to make earth heaven; and her heart 
Herein doth show its most exceeding work, 
That, bearing in our frailty her ^nst part 
She hath not shrunk ^«^^™Jg^ 
But hath gone calmly forth into the stnttj, 
And all its sins and sorrows hath withstood 
Whh lofty strength of patient womanhood 
For this I love her great soul more than all, 
That being bound, like us, with earthly thrall, 
She walks g so bright and heaven-like herein, 
Too wise, too meek, too womanly to ^ ^^ 



&utf)— tjje $oung Mtboto 



IN all the range of ancient literature, there is nothing comparable 
to the story of Ruth in the tenderness and simplicity with 
which it is narrated and in its genuine piety and faithfulness 
to nature. 'The simple and touching interest of the story, the 
beautiful and engaging scenery which it exhibits, the homelike and 
honest manners which it describes, the oppressive and heart-felt 
piety which pervades the whole, render it the most remarkable 
picture of ancient life and usages extant, and give us a far more 
complete idea of the real conditions of Hebrew life in the early 
ages of their settlement in Canaan than we could otherwise 
possess. The young and the old read it with equally enrapt 
interest." 

The story occurred during the time of the Judges. God 
intended, as we understand it, that the government of his ancient 
people should be theocratic ; that is, they should be ruled by him 
through the high priest. After the death of Joshua, the people, 
influenced in part by their evil surroundings, strayed away from 
God, and the heathen nations came upon them to chastise them. 
From time to time, as they repented, God raised up special men 
and women in certain parts of the nation— fifteen in all— whose 
names are given us, to rescue the people and lead them to a more 
faithful obedience to him. This sort of authority continued over 
four hundred years, from the time of Joshua to the reign of Saul. 
This scene is supposed to have occurred over twelve hundred 
years before the coming of Christ. During this time, as there was 
no imperative authority in the land, each man did as he pleased 
and helped himself in such a way as he thought best. 

There was a famine in the land. No rain came, and the crops 
did not prosper. In times like this, the people in northern Pales- 
tine usually resorted to Egypt for supplies, as the history of 
Joseph very plainly shows. The increase of prices resulting from 
scarcity of crops at home would press heavily upon the poorer 
class of people. If for any reason they were cut off from the sup- 



118 ■ Women of the Bible 

plies from Egypt, nothing was left for them but to look to eastern 
sources for their necessary food. This famine must have been 
somewhat general, for it extended to the most fertile parts of the 
country. The name Bethlehem, "house of bread," would indicate 
a fertile district. The region was well watered in comparison with 
other parts of the country. Even to this day, in spite of its poor 
cultivation, it is quite fruitful in olives, pomegranates, almonds, 

figs, and grapes. 

Owing to the famine now prevailing, a man named hdimelecn, 
"my God'is king," resolved to leave this town, and, with his wife 
and two sons, he journeyed across the Jordan and settled m the 
plains of Moab, whither the famine did not extend. ''Here we 
find the uncircumcised Moabites, bondslaves and vassals, had 
plenty of store, while Israel, God's children (but his prodigal chil- 
dren who, by their sins, had displeased their Heavenly Father), 
were pinched with penury." The Jewish writers blame this man 
for leaving his own land in such a time of distress. He left his 
friends and relatives in their misfortune and went forth to live in 
an enemy's land. He forsook his own home and became a 
stranger in Moab. If he did right, all of Bethlehem might have 
done the same thing. The famine, no doubt, was a chastening 
discipline to the people, but this man, they say, seeks to evade it 
by journeying to a foreign land. By cutting himself off from his 
own people, he will seek to change the orderings of divine provi- 
dence Quaint old Thomas Fuller, in 1654, gave the following 
advice to those who were contemplating coming to America: 
"Now if any do demand my opinion concerning our brethren 
which' of late left this kingdom to advance a plantation in New 
England, surely I think as St. Paul said concerning virgins, he 
had 'received no commandment from the Lord' ; so I cannot find 
any just warrant to encouragement to undertake this removal but 
I think rather that counsel best, that King Joash prescribed to 
Amaziah 'Tarry at home.' Yet as for those that are already gone, 
far be it from us to conceive them to be such to whom we may not 
say 'God speed,' as it is in II. John, verse 10, but let us pity them 
and pray for them ; for sure they have no need of our mocks, 
which, I am afraid, have too much of their own misery. I con- 
clude, therefore, of the two Englands, what our Savior saith of 



Ruth — the Young Widow 119 

the two wines, Luke 5:39: 'No man, having tasted of the old, 
presently desireth the new, for he seeth the old is better.' " 

This man belonged to the tribe of Judah, and his family was 
of some importance in the tribe and well known about Bethlehem. 
This tribe and that of Simeon are the only tribes of Israel which 
seem to have driven out the previous Canaanite possessors. All 
the others, to a greater or lesser extent, appear to have entered 
into peaceful covenant with the Canaanite, and, in spite of the 
divine command to the contrary, permitted them to dwell with 
them even in their cities. In their early history, Judah seems to 
have been the most faithful tribe, and there is not recorded of 
them the crimes and idolatries practiced by their brethren. This 
family is not one of the poorest, as we find they have some landed 
property. The names of the family are suggestive of previous 
prosperity. The wife's name was Naomi, "the lovely, gracious 
one." There is a little uncertainty about the names of the two 
sons, but it seems more than probable that Mahlon suggested 
"joy" and Chilion "ornament." They are called Ephrathites of 
Bethlehem-Judah. Ephratah was the ancient name of Bethlehem 
and the region around it; hence these people were natives of the 
city, persons properly belonging to the tribe of Judah, and not mere 
residents in Bethlehem who had come from some other tribe. 

The family reached the plains of Moab and settled there. They 
found a land of plenty in contrast to the desolation they had left 
behind them. But death claims all lands for his own. Not long 
after they arrived— just how long is not recorded— the father 
died, even in this land of plenty. He could have but died amid the 
dearth of Israel. It was the first real, sad lesson in the history of 
this family. Naomi is now a widow, away from the home of her 
youth, from the sympathy of her own people, from the sepulchers 
of her fathers, and in a foreign land. In her sad affliction she has 
two sons left, who would take their father's place and bring peace 
and quiet to her bereaved heart. In due time, these young men 
marry Moabitish women, named Orpah and Ruth. These mar- 
riages appear to have been in violation of the divine law, which 
forbade marriages with idolatrous nations in order to keep the 
chosen people from the corruptions of idolatry. In respect to 
young people desiring marriage, it was the usual custom for the 
fathers or mothers to provide wives for them, as Hagar did for 



j 20 Women of the Bible 

f shmael Here it is said "they took them wives," a phrase which 
isuX has a bad sense and means this was done in opposition _to 
wish and advice of Naomi who probably contemplated, in the 
S "ear future> return to her own land and *« 
from their own kindred. This the Jewish people thought the 
proper thing to do, but these young men seem to have concluded 
Le" bhsh'themseives permanently in this foreign land which by 
this time had become quite a home to them. If there was an 
offense upon the part of these sons, it was not so much in the 
n^uself bu in the f^^^^f^^ 
Z: e^trs eftoir Lie fed 2S££f their husbands, 
and he moth'e -in-law, in the companionship of these women who 
have now come into her home, will find some fresh comfort 
During the lifetime of these sons, we have no further record of 
Se am£ h story. The mother-in-law seems to have been gentle 
and me k and to have manifested a guileless piety in every rela- 
tion I tie ! while the daughters-in-law learned to love her with a- 

^£S*K* affliction to this mother when both 
of her sons are stricken down. "How is it the men die firs . 
Sir tlfisTs cruelty from our point of view, that the men should 
"^ the best of it, that the men should be rid of the burden 
i,;ic+ thfv are auite voung, and the women be left to weep ana 
I'cfer and "avea £ suffer^mspeakably, displaying a patience that 
nfi"ht reve entlv be called divine. Why should they not have the 
best of M I and go into heaven first and be there to meet those 
who need more discipline, meet those whom longer exposure in 
the bleak air would do good? But it is well. 

'God keeps a niche 
In heaven to hold our idols ; and albeit 
He break them to our faces and denied 
That our close kisses should impair them, white. 
I know we shall behold them raised. complete, 
The dust swept from their beauty-glorified , „ 
New Memnons singing m the great God. Light. 

Alas for the uncertainty of human joys and human hopes! 
Hardly has t a t little home circle been made complete and the 
"gel of happiness again settled down upon the family, when it 



Ruth — the Young Widozv 121 

is driven away by the ruthless hand of the destroyer. As these 
young wives try to cheer up the heart of the loved mother-in-law 
and make her forget the loneliness of her widowhood, how little 
they know of the future, and how ignorant of the fact that their 
hearts, now brimming over with newly found joy, will soon expe- 
rience an agony of which they have not before known. Now as 
they look into each other's eyes, they have an appreciation of 
that mother's sorrow of which they were hitherto unconscious. 

The mother-in-law is now old and heartbroken, with two wid- 
owed daughters-in-law on her hands. By the adoption of the 
religion of their husbands they have made something of a break 
between themselves and their own people. It was natural at this 
time for the mother's thoughts to turn back to the home of her 
children. As we reach the end of life, we live over again the 
scenes of the past. It is said of the foreigner in a strange land, 
that when he comes to die, the words most frequently upon his 
.ongue are the words of his native language, and the visions that 
most frequently come to him are the visions of the land of his 
birth. Whatever may Have been the ties that held Naomi to this 
foreign land, they are now all gone. She hears that "the Lord 
hath visited his people in giving them bread." It does not follow 
from her statement that the famine had lasted ten years, for the 
land could hardly have endured that, but simply that it is now 
over and plenty smiles once more. The judgments of God have 
now been turned away and he has remembered his people in 
mercy. It may have ended long before she heard of it. Letter 
writing was not much practiced and intelligence would be con- 
veyed mainly by travelers. Messages would be sent to friends, 
and travelers would be glad to carry them, for it would give them 
a claim for kindness and hospitality from those for whom these 
messages were intended. The land of Moab was not far away, 
but it was on the opposite side of the Dead Sea, and off the line 
of travel which the inhabitants of southern Palestine would likely 
take ; hence information would reach them very slowly. 

Naomi had probably learned of it sooner, but circumstances 
were such she could not get away. We are not quite sure whether 
the purpose of these daughters-in-law was to return with Naomi 
to Judea or not, but we are inclined to think it was. Ere they 
started away from their childhood's home, do doubt they would 



p2 Women of the Bible 

vMt the places where their loved ones were sleeping, and with 
sad hearts take their final farewell of the spot made sacred I by 
their presence. They commenced their journey westward, it is 
all new to these voung widows, but Naomi would remember how 
she passed over that same route ten years before, rejoicing m the 
companionship of a husband and two strong boys, and now she 
had eft them sleeping in a foreign land, awaiting the trump which 
shall call us all to judgment. If the mother understood these two 
women to be simplv escorting her a short distance on her way as 
was the custom of" friends and relatives in the east it seemed to 
her they had gone as far as was proper or them and as she could 
afford to ask, and it was now time for them to return. If, on he 
contrary, they had started intending to go the whole journey, the 
thought no doubt comes to Naomi, Why involve these young 
women in her childless destiny? They belonged to the people of 
Aloab Here were their friends and acquaintances and here the 
home of their youth. She was taking them from their native land 
oThoL of strangers. She had no more sons to offer them, but 
n their own land they might marry again Much as she would 
like to have them, she must not sacrifice their wellbe.ng, so hei 
generosity rises above her grief. She suddenly stops and says to 
these women, "Go, return each to her mother's house: the Lord 
d a k nd y witb vou, as ye have dealt with the dead and with me. 
The Lord grant you that ye may find a resting place, each o you 
in the house of her husband." Then she kissed them a kind fare- 

well and they all wept. • . . f . 

What an interesting picture we get here of this family life 
There were no children to strengthen the bonds of affection, yet 
Use women were worthy of their husbands. They had found a 
conception of a Jewish home such as was not common among then 
own people They had seen the higher morality which pervaded a 
Jewish household 7 They had requited the treatment which they 
had received with self-sacrificing affection. They had not onl 

eard of the religion of Jehovah, hut they had seen it to some 
extent manifested in the lives of their husbands, and especially m 
h faithful living of Naomi. In a husband's home is the asylum 
for a woman. Here she finds affection, safety and honor. These 
women are yet young and she must not take them into her uncer- 
tain life. The widows of her sons may, yes possibly ought to. 



Ruth — the Young Widow 123 



"5 



marry again. She will not take them away from such probable 
happiness, but fervently prays that they may each rest in the home 
of a new husband. They all wept. It is hard to send back those 
whom she has adopted as her own daughters, and it is equally as 
hard for them to forsake one who has been to them a mother. In 
the grief of the hour, with eyes suffused with tears, they cry out, 
"No, no! We will return with thee unto thy people." 

She would not take any advantage of passionate regret which 
seemed to be in opposition to their own temporal welfare, and 
which their better judgment might not approve ; so she urges them 
once more to return. She has held up to their view the prospect of 
another marriage among their own people which will bring them 
comfort and peace. She has no other sons she can offer them. 
There is no hope of renewed married happiness if they go with 
her. Naomi has no husband. If she were married and brought 
forth two sons that very night, these widowed women could not 
shut themselves away from other associations while these sons 
were growing to manhood. She does not dare to tell them in any 
plainer language that Israel does not sanction matrimonial con- 
nections with Moab. They can hope for nothing in Israel except 
what she can give, and she has given them her all. Her condition 
is worse than theirs. It is hard for her to let them go, for she is 
alone. There is a future for them, but her happiness is buried in 
a foreign grave and there is no blissful future for her. Once more 
their tears burst forth as if their hearts were ready to break. 
Orpah finally yielded to the entreaties of her mother-in-law, and 
started to go back again to her own people. "Orpah was one of 
the many, feeling powerfully at the moment, passionately desirous 
to evince that she felt, but liable to be easily diverted from her 
purpose. Penetrating no deeper than the surface, she perhaps 
believed Naomi's words, as neither desiring nor requiring her 
further company; and therefore repeatedly she kissed her mother- 
in-law and wept, but at length turned back to her own home. 
Much as she loved the aged Naomi, earnestly as she wished to 
serve her, she had not sufficient firmness and steadiness of charac- 
ter to act of herself and sat at naught the persuasions of affection. 
Gentle and yielding, it was easier for her to grieve than to act. 
She was woman in her weakness, Ruth was woman in her 
strength ; and both arc as beautifully true to woman now as then." 



124 Women of the Bible 

Ruth's own unselfish nature helped her more clearly to inter- 
pret her mother-in-law's words. She understood how Naomi 
could urge them to return for their own sakes, and yet how stren- 
uously she clung to them as her last ties on earth. She realized as 
only an affectionate heart could, her mother-in-law's forlorn con- 
dition. It is a strange providence how the very same things di- 
vided these two sisters-in-law, and sent one in one direction and 
another in a different one. 

"So, from the heights of will, 

Life's parting stream descends; 
And, as a moment turns its slender nil, 

Each widening torrent bends, 
From the same cradle side, 

From the same mother's knee, 
One to long darkness and the frozen tide, 

One to the peaceful sea." 

The fact that Naomi had no more sons, no husband, had only 
sorrow and penury and solitariness for her lot, were the very things 
that made the affectionate, loving Ruth cling the closer to her. 1 his 
very hopefulness of the future sends Orpah back to Moab. "Few 
among the natural children of men are as kind and good as 
Orpah' but a love like that of Ruth has scarcely entered the 
thoughts of poets. Antigone dies for love of her brother ; but 
the life which awaited Ruth was more painful than death. Alces- 
tis sacrifices herself for her husband, and Sigune persistently con- 
tinues in a solitary cell with the corpse of her lover, whom she 
had driven into battle, until she dies ; but Ruth goes to a foreign 
land and chooses poverty, not for a husband or a lover, but for 
the mother of him who, long since, was torn away from her She 
refuses to leave for the very reason that she is poor, old, and 
childless. Naomi, having lost her sons, shall not on that account 
lose her daughter also. Rather than leave her to suffer alone, 
Ruth will slave with her or beg for her. Here is love for the 
dead and the living surpassing that of Alcestis or Sigune. That 
Ruth does for her mother-in-law what, as the highest filial love, 
the poet invents for Antigone when he represents her as not leav- 
ing her blind father, is in actual life almost unexampled. Nor 
would it be easy to find an instance of a deeper conflict than that 
which love had to sustain on this occasion— nationality, laws, and 



Ruth— the Young Widow 125 

customs were about to separate mother and daughter-in-law. But 
as love had united them, so also love has power to solve the con- 
flict, but only such love as Ruth's. Orpah escapes the struggle by 
returning to Moab ; Ruth ends it by going with Noami." 

Ruth will abide with Naomi. She has decided what to do, and 
she presses her case in fitting and tender words which have com- 
pelled the admiration of the centuries : "Intreat me not to leave 
thee, or to return from following after thee : for whither thou 
goest, I will go; and where thou lodgest, I will lodge: thy people 
shall be my people, and thy God, my God ; where thou diest, will 
I die, and there will I be buried : the Lord do so to me, and more 
also, if aught but death part thee and me." Not the most care- 
fully studied oration could breathe more undying, changeless, self- 
submitting devotion than these few and simple words. Naomi was 
evidently poor. The riches of the Hebrews did not consist then of 
such wealth as would provide for their families after their death 
Land and its produce constituted their possession, and these, when 
there were no males to cultivate, could not prevent the female 
survivors from being poor as well as the bereaved. Naomi's 
return to her own land would of course, according to the law of 
God, secure her provision, but in the constant rebellion and disobe- 
dience of the people it was precarious and uncertain. She might 
not even be recognized by her countrymen, so long a time had 
elapsed since she had left Ephratah. By her earnest entreaties for 
her daughter's return, it is evident that sufficiency and comfort 
mark their own homes. Ruth unhesitatingly resigned them all to 
share her mother-in-law's fate, whatever it might be To the 
bereaved wife and mother, left in her old age alone, a withered 
tree from which every leaf and flower has gone, with no hope of 
ever bearing more, Ruth's affection must have been indeed a 
precious balm. 

i How long the travelers journeyed, we do not know, but in due 
time they reached Bethlehem in safety. 

. "We leave 

Uur home in youth— no matter to what end- 
Study, or strife, or pleasure, or what not; 
And coming back in few short years, we find 
All as we left it outside— 
But lift that latchet— all is changed as doom." 



126 Women of the Bible 

Two lonely women, with travel-stained garments, enter the 
town, one old and dignified, with sad countenance and careworn 
expression of face, the other a young and interesting widow. The 
one who first saw them told the news to the next, and she reported 
to a third ; and soon the town was stirred. It was ten long years 
since she had left. Possibly she had not gone on her own free 
choice, but as the companion of her husband. Her family was well 
connected, and when the rumor of her return began to spread, it is 
not strange that many of the people, especially the women, came 
to look upon the travelers and, gazing intently into the changed 
face of the older, inquired, "Is this Naomi?" It is a beautiful 
picture of the simplicity of that age. Men were not so engrossed 
with the cares of life as to feel no interest for one outside of their 
own little circle. They could take the time to extend a friendly 
greeting to one of their own countrywomen who had been so long 
absent, and to grieve with her over her afflictions. As they kindly 
welcome her back into their midst once more, how eloquently, in 
her tears, she cries out, "Call me -not Naomi [the lovely, gracious 
one], but call me Mara [bitter] , for the Almighty hath afflicted 
bitter sorrow upon me. I went out full, and the' Lord hath brought 
me home again empty. Why then call me Naomi, seeing the Lord 
hath testified against me and the Almighty hath afflicted me?" 
The presence of these friends of other days would call up most 
vividly the joys of past years and the desolations of the present. 
She does not conceal her condition from any one. She had fol- 
lowed her husband to Moab. Htr stay there was because her 
sons had married, most likely against her will. At their death she 
had come back again, although life had little of joy to offer her. 
In all of these things, she accepts her misfortunes as a judgment 
upon herself. She will bear God's judgment as best she can and 
will now dwell among her own people, with Ruth the Moabitess 
as her companion. It was in the beginning of barley harvest, pos- 
sibly about the middle of April. 

Ruth now looks about for some means of support for herself 
and her mother-in-law. As it is the beginning of harvest, she 
concludes she can do something by going forth to glean. The law 
of Moses and the customs founded thereon, gave the poor a right 




o 
< 

< 

w 

H 



Ruth — the Young Widow 127 

to glean in the fields, and surely they were among the poor. This 
was one of the legal provisions made for the poor, and the owners 
of the land granted it somewhat freely. That he might not be 
subjected to serious inconvenience, the proprietor controlled the 
movements of the gleaners, so that those who gleaned in a partic- 
ular place must do so with the consent of the owner. Naomi was 
manifestly in need, so she consented for Ruth to glean. Ruth 
might have chanced on fields of strange and unfriendly owners, 
but Providence so ordered, without her knowledge, that she 
entered the field of one who was of the family of Elimelech and 
a distant relative of Naomi's husband. "A finer picture of rural 
harvest scenes is nowhere extant. We hear, as it were, the 
rustling of the reapers' sickles. Behind them are the women 
binding the cut grain. The overseer's presence promotes industry 
and order. In case of thirst, there stand the water vessels at no 
great distance. The fields surround the country home with its 
various outbuildings, where the weary may find a moment's rest 
and refreshment. At meal time the laborers are supplied with 
roasted grain and bread. The latter they dip in a refreshing drink 
consisting of vinegar and water, with perhaps some oil mixed in it." 
When the day has somewhat advanced, the owner of the fields, 
Boaz by name, comes out from the city to look after his reapers. 
His greeting is, "Jehovah be with you," and they answer, "Jehovah 
bless thee." This is no mere matter of form, for the record shows 
that he is a high-minded, tender-hearted, pious man. He knows 
his servants and the poor who are gleaning in his held. He notices 
one who does not seem to be accustomed to such work, and her 
charm of grace and manners having interested him, he says to the 
overseer, 'Who is this damsel? How comes she here?" Since 
the return of Naomi has been much talked about, the overseer 
can tell who she is, and proceeds to compliment her industry by 
stating she has been working ever since morning except a little 
time taken to rest in the house. Having heard so good a report, 
Boaz approaches her. He learns that she has been gleaning at a 
distance from the reapers and the binders, so he says, "Go not to 
glean in another field, but nearer my maidens." The one who 
approached nearest the binders had the best opportunity and fared 



128 Women of the Bible 

the best. Hitherto she had kept back, and others had taken this 
place. Boaz makes her gleaning more productive to her. He has 
given instructions that no one shall molest her, and when she is 
thirsty, she may go to the vessels provided for the reapers and 

drink. 

She is overwhelmed by this kindness which she evidently did 
not anticipate. She could sacrifice her own life for Naomi, but 
she does not know why this man should take such a kindly interest 
in one who is a stranger. Boaz answers her, not simply as the 
proprietor of the land, but as a pious Israelite. He has learned, 
possibly from Naomi herself, or from others she had privately 
told, how faithfully Ruth had stood by her. She deserves the 
blessing of God, not only for thus caring for her mother-in-law, but 
because she had turned her back upon the heathenism of her own 
people, and had said, "Thy people shall be my people, and thy God, 
my God," and he therefore implores God's blessing upon her. She 
thanks him for this sunbeam of life which had invaded her heart, 
maybe one of the first, assuredly one of the most welcome, which 
had broken through the griefs of the last month. He had been 
very kind to her although she was not of the number of his "hand- 
maidens" who were accustomed to glean in his fields. "Boaz may 
not have known of his relationship to Naomi's husband. If he 
knew of it and thought of it, he purposely kept silent about it. He 
showed his kindness, not because she was distantly related to him, 
but solely because of her own excellence. It was not as the widow 
of his kinsman that he distinguished her with special favor, but as 
one who had taken refuge under the wings of Israel's God. Ruth 
likewise did not know what Boaz was to her husband's family, 
nor had she wasted a word to make him aware that she had ever 
been more than a maid servant, which, had she done, might have 
brought their relationship to speech." 

Her answer to him raised her higher in his esteem, and he 
bids her join in the common meal. She sat with the reapers and 
Boaz himself helped her to a portion of everything on hand. This 
was not the chief meal of the day, which usually came later m the 
evening after the labors of the day had closed. It is this later 
meal, most likely, which Homer tells was depicted by the artist 
on the shield of Achilles. 



Ruth — the Young Widow pg 

"There -too, he formed the likeness of a field 
Crowded with corn, in which the reapers toiled 
Each with a sharp-tooth'd sickle in his hand ' 
Along the furrow here, the harvest fell 
Iii frequent handfuls ; there they bound the sheaves- 
Three binders ot the sheaves their sultry task 
All phed industrious, and behind them bovs 
Attended, filling with the corn their arms 
And offering still their bundles to be bound 
Amid them, staff in hand, the master stood ' 
bitent, exulting, while beneath an oak 
Apart, his heralds busily prepared 
1 he banquet, dressing a well-thriven ox 
New slam, and the attendant maidens mixed 
Large supper for the hinds, of whitest flour." 

— Iliad, xviii. (Cowper). 

He is not satisfied to let her have a common gleaning. She is 
to glean between the sheaves.- The workmen are now and then 
to pull some ears from the "bundles" that she may gather them up 
They are not to speak harshly or scold her for the little extra 
trouble she may make for them. She eats and is satisfied, showing 
the abundance which had been prepared for them, and the re- 
mainder she gathers up to take home. She gleans faithfully until 
evening, then takes the pains to beat out what she has gathered 
and has a plentiful harvest for the day's work of almost an ephah 
of barley. Tins is supposed to have been at least fifty-five pounds 
_ When Ruth returned at the close of the day, Naomi was sur- 
prised to learn that she had been so successful, and makes anxious 
inquiry as to where she had gleaned and who had been so friendly 
to her for without such treatment she would not have fared so 
well. She related the story of the events of the day, and ? ave the 
name of the man who had so generously aided her. The mother- 
in-law s heart ,s full of thanksgiving as she listens to this report 
and returns thanks to God who still cares for the living as he has 
cared for the dead. As she supposed her misfortune had come 
upon her as afflict.ons from the Almighty, so now she is quick to 
infer trom this special blessing that God's favor is upon her again 
W hen the daughter further reported that she had been invited to 
remain there during the whole harvest, the mother advised her so 
to do, at the same time informing her for the first time that this 
man, as she then supposed, was the nearest male relative that she 
Had. So Ruth worked away faithfully during the barley harvest 



130 Women of the Bible 

and also the wheat harvest. Boaz saw her day after day and 
learned more and more of her modest, gentle ways. He no doubt 
found opportunity to bestow other favors upon her. She was no 
longer a stranger to him. 

Among the Jewish people, marriage was viewed as the natural 
fulfillment of a woman's calling. When Naomi urged her daugh- 
ter-in-law to return, she prayed that she might have "rest" in the 
house of the husband. Orpah returns because she has no hope of 
finding it in Israel. Ruth is willing to sacrifice all of that for the 
good of her mother-in-law, so she comes back with her. That 
which made the fate of the daughter of Jephthah so sad, was that 
she never found a resting place in the house of a husband. The 
same fate seemed to await Ruth in coming to the land of the He- 
brews. Naomi has learned something more of her own family his- 
tory and has divined a way whereby her loved and loving daughter 
may yet be provided with a husband. She gives to Ruth the needed 
information, and herself arranges a plan whereby it may be accom- 
plished. It was an ancient law in Israel, and sanctioned by the 
Mosaic legislation, that when a man died without children, his 
brother was expected to marry the widow. This was a right of 
the woman. She could demand it, and if he refused, could put 
him to open shame. If a brother married a widow and she bare 
an heir the son is the heir to the name and the possessions of the 
first husband. But what if there be no brother? The law did not 
expressly declare; but the inference was, that in that case the 
obligation passed over to the nearest relatives of the deceased. 
Every family must see to it that no member in it dies out. 

Naomi has become more or less familiar with the movements 
of Boaz and she notifies Ruth of the relationship and also of the 
Jewish law of marriage. Under it she has a moral and legal right 
to apply to him for a performance of its requirements. The right 
to assert this claim belongs to her and not to him. On account of 
her nationality, Ruth might fear to assert this claim, which more 
especially belongs to a Jewish maiden ; but Naomi encourages her, 
that so far from slighting her on this account, Boaz has already 
shown her soecial favor and put her on equality with the people 
of his own nation. She then shows how it can all be arranged 
secretly and properly. When the grain in the East is thrashed 
out the owner or some employee must guard it during the night 



Ruth—the Young Widow 13] 

. until it is all gathered into the granaries. This was the night on 

Con^eTr \ ?"*} "" 7 gra '"' «* he W °"' d *^ 
a side he,- . > g , fl °° r al0 " e - Ruth was instructed to lay 
aside hei widow's weeds and array herself in her best raimenf 

lie down. She should mark the place, and when he was asleen 
and all was quiet, she should go in, uncover his fZ anflll! a P 
awa tino- res,,1tc v„„ • , , , Lr ms teet ' an d he down, 

1,1? f Naomi could not but feel sure that the Maims 

which Ruth was to prefer would not be addressed to a hard and 

KmSK P 6art °" the ° t,,er hand > * ~ "-' to th "k 
tttlchedZt n W3S , an e ' derly ma "> Rllth m »=t be hear fly 
a ached to him. It was he who first brought joy to her sadness 

w ilZhad '11 T scenes r 1 moves ,ike *- SSS 

fi t md ak S at T 'k' S " eVer l0St She Went forth °" her 

on th sec ond "In thK b , glnnmg . ° f barIey harvest >- sh e enters 
on tne second when the barley is winnowed on the threshing floor 

WNao tW ?^, here 'f a " inten ' al 0f time «SS5 
how Naom, could have the courage and the information necessarv 
to send her daughter on such an errand. A traveler rives the 
following as to the sleeping custom of the East the norlfonf 
which we are able to verify f rom observation^ in Erect 
of Cairo, Egypt, some years since- "Natives of \Z £ ! 
very little for sleeping accommodations, h s * ttZl 
overcomes them, lying on the ground. Thev are, howeve7 ca efu 

^Xtn^t^nr^efi 

body, suffer it to cover th" c and th head* 7 n ? ^ 
seldom changes his position, and we are old ttat Boaz dTso 
because he was afraid; the covering of the feet in ordinar 
is consequently not disturbed T 1,, / ? ordinary cases 

IZ S , ; e ' ther men nor wome « alter their dress at niZ 
and the laboring classes, or travelers in a serai where the- 

re'redT„d n ihe nd ^'^ "* t0gether ' the ™* ^ **£ 
coy ered and the women wrapped in their veils or sarees." 



132 Women of the Bible 

The plan proposed to Ruth, whereby she might rightfully 
claim from the living the performance of the solemn duty which 
he owed both to the living and the dead, is a startling one to us. 
It would be very improper and dangerous as measured by the 
customs of our own times, but it cannot be condemned. The 
simple manners for that age made it entirely proper. There is 
often a wide difference of ideas as to what constitutes modest 
demeanor in different nations and in different periods in the 
world's history. We have seen women in the East cover their 
faces with their veils when men pass by, because to expose the 
face was by them, and indeed by all others, considered as very 
immodest ; while in our own nation, it is the most common thing 
to do, entirely proper, and anything else would be seriously ob- 
jected to. It is very certain that Naomi would not have suggested 
what the most approved customs of the land forbade. Had it 
been objectionable, it would have failid of the very purpose 
sought, for a man so prudent and pious as Boaz would have been 
driven away rather than won by it. 

When Boaz had eaten heartily of the evening meal, ne lav- 
down at the end of the heap of grain sheaves and soon fell asleep. 
As soon as Ruth was satisfied that he was asleep, she lay down at 
his feet, drawing over herself a part of the cover under which he 
lay By some movement he is startled, and looking about him he 
finds a woman at his feet, and he exclaims, "Who art thou?' She 
answers him, "I am Ruth, thy handmaid ; spread thy wings over 
thy handmaid, for thou art my redeemer." The wife finds rest 
under the protection of her husband, so she hides herself under 
the corner of his coverlet. She is no longer Ruth the Moabitess, 
but Ruth "thy handmaid," and he is her legal redeemer. He does 
not find fault with her for disturbing him. He implores God s 
blessing upon her. Young and handsome, she might have looked 
out for a husband, rich or poor, as she desired, among the young 
men of the nation. She does not do this, and instead of preferring 
the love of a young man, she asserts her claim to a man advanced 
in years, thus following the usages of the nation. She need not 
feel alarmed at what she has done, for all knew her to be an 
upright woman. He tells her, however, that there is a kinsman 
nearer than himself. If this one will not perform the duty re- 
quired he will. He will not send her away in the darkness. In 



Ruth — the Young Widow 133 

the early dawn they are up, so it will not be perceived that the 
woman came unto the floor. Before she leaves he bids her spread 
out her mantle, and he empties into it six measures of barley that 
she come not empty to her mother-in-law. This may have 'been 
intended as an intimation that Ruth's petition had been favorably 
heard ; but most likely it was to ward off any possible suspicion 
that might arise, for it was no new thing to see her come from the 
holes of Boaz laden with grain. She reports to her mother-in-law 
ah that occurred, and she is advised to remain at home as an 
artianced bride. Naomi is satisfied the man will not cease his 
efforts until he has provided for her a resting place 

Boaz started early for the city the same morning, in order to 
reach the gates where the markets were held and judicial business 
was transacted, so as to meet his kinsman, who probably was in 
the habit of coming early to the city. He saw him and called to 
him to seat himself, implying thereby that he sought a judicial 
decision. Ten men from the bystanders were selected to hear the 
case. Boaz introduces the matter by stating that the inheritance 
of his relative Ehmelech had been sold by Naomi. The sale of 
this land had not been mentioned before. Nothing had been said 
about it in the conversation between Ruth and Boaz on the thresh- 
ing-floor The fact that Boaz understands the matter would look 
as though there had been some conversation between himself and 
Naomi, and the redemption of the land may also have led to the 
marrying of the widow. Hence Boaz may not have been entirely 
surprised to find Ruth at his feet, although he may not have 
expected her at this time; if there had been such conversation, 
then .\aom, felt perfectly secure in sending Ruth to the threshing- 
floor to meet him. Boaz, without saying anything concerning the 
widow, offers to give this kinsman the privilege of redeeming the 
land, as he is the nearest male relative. Boaz agrees to do so if he 
does not, so the matter is entirely at his own option. The kinsman 
agrees to redeem the land. When he learned that this was bur- 
dened with another condition, that he should marry the widow of 
Naomi s son m order that the firstborn of her children should take 

tnlZT m • v! '• ame °.. fhe deCeaSed ' he declilles to red «m the 
and ess he might injure his own heritage. The manner in which 

he relinquished his right to his inheritance and transferred it to 

another, was indicated by his plucking off his shoe and giving it 



134 Women of the Bible 

to his neighbor. The shoe symbolized possession which, if one 
had, he could tread with his own feet at pleasure. When he pulled 
off his shoe, as he did in this case, and gave it to Boaz, he sur- 
rendered to him all the right of possession which would have been 
his had he fulfilled the condition. 

Boaz then calls upon the ten men and all the people who were 
near to bear witness that he had now rightfully acquired all that 
belonged to Elimelech. He secures it from Naomi, but he cannot 
do so until he marries the widow of Mahlon, "to raise up the name 
of the dead upon his inheritance in order that his name be not cut 
off from among his brethren and from the gates of his place." 
He has no fear of clanger to his own inheritance. This willingness 
to accept the duty falling upon him and to act when the nearer 
kinsman hesitated, secured for him the approbation of all who 
knew him, and they invoked upon him the blessing of Jehovah. 
They hoped the woman, whom he was now taking into his house, 
might build up the house of Israel. They desire for him that sons 
may be born who shall be heroes of strength, and the great name 
may proceed out of Bethlehem. And their wish was graciously 
fulfilled. Boaz thus became the resting place in whose love Ruth 
found oeace and security. 

"She stood breast high amid the corn, 
Clasped by the golden light of morn, 
Like the sweetheart of the sun, 
Whom many a glowing kiss had won. 

"On her cheeks an autumn flush, 
Deeply ripened — such a blush 
In the midst of brown was born 
Like red poppies grow with corn. 
'Round dark eyes her tresses fell, 
Which were blackest none could tell, 
But long lashes veiled a light 
That had else been all too bright; 
And her hat with shady brim. 
Made her tressy forehead dim ; 
Thus she stood amid the stalks 
Praising God with sweetest looks. 
'Sure,' I said, 'heaven did not mean 
Where I reap thou shouldst but glean ; 
Lay thy sheaf adown and come, 
Share my harvest and my home,' " 



Ruth — the Young Widow 135 

A"s to the import of the "shoe" in connection with Jewish 

marriage ceremonies, a traveler in Barbary gives the following • 

At a Jewish marriage I was standing beside the bridegroom when 

the bride entered ; and as she crossed the threshold, he stooped 

down, slipped off his shoe, and struck her with the heel on the 

nape of the neck. I at once saw the interpretation of the passage 

m scripture respecting the transfer of the shoe to another, in case 

the brother-in-law did not exercise his privilege. The slipper 

being taken off indoors, or if not, left outside the apartment is 

placed at the edge of the small carpets upon which you sit, and is 

at hand to administer correction, and is here used in sign of the 

obedience of the wife and the supremacy of the husband The 

Highland custom is to strike for 'good luck/ as they say the 

bride with an old slipper. Little do they suspect the meaning 

implied. & 

Our story had a sad beginning but a delightful ending It 
began with famine and misery, but it terminates with joy and 
plenty. How strange at times and how unexpected are God's 
providences ! Plow our steps are ordered when we put our trust 
m the Lord ! What strange coincidences, what unexpected rela- 
tionships, are found in the drama of human life! The Moabitess 
who gives up her country and her prospect for a husband among 
her own people, and who adopts the God of Israel because she sees 
his character and teachings so faithfully exemplified in the life of 
Naomi, shall not go without her reward. She bears a son whom 
the women call Obed. Naomi's heart is made to rejoice Ruth 
who had been to her better and truer than seven sons could have 
been is his mother. Obed becomes the father of Jesse, and he of 
David, and the latter of the Son of man. Thus, this heathen 
woman this unselfish friend, this devoted daughter-in-law, this 
faithful wife, this loving and lovable woman, became what every 
Jewish woman desired to be, a progenitor of God's own Christ 
bo he came, "not m one direction alone, not as born of the Tew 
only but of a line of kings. In him all men are gathered up, the 
mightiest, the weakest, the wanderer, the homeless. Verily this 
man was the Son of God— the Incarnate Deity." 
u This book, in which is contained the simple story of Ruth 
does not preach by means of mighty deeds of war inspired by 
faith, like those of Gideon and Samson, but by acts of love which 



136 Women of the Bible 

demand no less strength of soul. God can be praised not only 
with timbrels and trumpets, but also in quietness and silence. It 
tells of women in whom burn the gentle flames of the household 
hearth, which distress and desertion cannot quench. The scene 
of its history is not laid in the temple where the harp of God 
resounds. Its central figure is neither king nor poet. It contains 
no stern denunciations, no sorrowing lamentations over Israel, its 
people, princes, and priests ; but deeply impressive, penetrating to 
the heart, is the instance it gives of suffering, love, and victory. 
It proposes, not, like Daniel, to unveil the destinies of nations and 
the world, but at its close appears the Son of David, into whose 
Godhood all history empties as the rivers into the ocean. No 
miracles occur in it like that of the three men in the fiery oven, 
but it tells of three believing ones who, in the glowing heat of 
suffering and temptation, were found strong and true." 

"Round her she made an atmosphere of light; 
The very air seemed lighter from her eyes — 
They were so soft and beautiful and ripe 
With all we can imagine of the skies." 



2BeboraJ)== -fyt heroic Woman 



"A new period dawned in Israel. Deborah, the Wife of Lapidoth, was 
judge. There was no inquiry as to whether it was meet that a woman 
should be judge. The people came up to the famous old palm tree and 
told their tale to Deborah day by da>, until the motherly heart began to 
wake, and her trouble was very great. She said, 'By the help of heaven 
we will see more clearly into this.' She sent for Barak. Sisera was on 
the alert. When a man has nine hundred chariots of iron, he wants some- 
thing for them to do. But the Lord will not loose his chariots upon Jabin 
and his nine hundred curricles. Kishon was more than all Jabin's iron host. 
Now Deborah sings. This woman's song is reason set to music, awarding 
to the good that which is good, to the evil that which they deserve. Meroz 
was cursed even in song. The Lord might have been torn to pieces for 
aught that Meroz did. The winding up of all things shall be a great song, 
a triumphant burst of music ; but moral distinctions will not be forgotten 
in those jubilant strains. Then it will be known who did his duty, who 
remained at home, who was content with criticism, and who hazarded his 
life that his Christ might be made more widely known." 

^-Dr. Joseph Parker, in "The People's Bible." 



3Be6orafj— tfje heroic Woman 



v 



THE people of Israel finally came into nominal possession of 
the land of Canaan, which many years before had been 
promised to their fathers. As a punishment upon the 
nation itself and as a means of discipline to the Israelites, God 
put upon the latter the duty of driving out the former "Ye shall 
destroy their altars, and break down their images, and cut down 
their groves and burn their graven images with fire." After 
Joshua had led them through the land and opened up a way for 
hem, their families, and their herds, by a series of successful 
battles, the people were glad to settle down in peace and quiet. 
I he conquest was over, but the upheaving of the conquered pop- 
ulate, stil! continued. The ancient inhabitants, like the Saxons 
under the Normans, still retained their hold on large tracts and on 
important positions throughout the country." These people were 
heir neighbors, and instead of treating them as the Lord's enemies 
they entered into friendly relations with them. As a punishment 
for such willful disobedience, the Lord permitted the nations to 
remain as thorns and pricks in their sides, and their false eods 

™ rXT t0 *, m u' • Th£ reSUlt ° f tWs im P r °P er familiarity 
was that they took their daughters to be their wives, and gave 

their daughters to their sons, and served their gods; and the chil- 
dren of Israel did evil in the sight of God, and forgot the Lord 
their God and served Baalim and the groves." 

This was a gradual and not altogether unnatural result. Their 
fathers had lived in the midst of the showy and wonderful idolatry 
of Egypt, and they themselves had not well learned the lessons 
which Moses had sought to teach them. The lessons of Moses 
were so infinitely beyond anything which the heathen nations had 
taught that they were, in a sense, made obscure by the very excess 
of light about them. Had the command of the Lord to drive out 
these people been obeyed, it would have been well with them To 
compromise to any extent with the false teaching about them', was 
to yield to wrongdoing. "It is difficult to rise to any extent above 



140 Women of the Bible 

the universal belief and modes of thought of any age, especially 
when they are based on the ignorant simplicity and moral obliguity 
from which idolatry has its rise. The system prevailing in Canaan 
was in reality only the worship of natural phenomena, wrongly 
explained and perverted to the sanction of the grossest impurity 
and cruelty. Yet it reigned all over Western Asia in spite of its 
revolting characteristics, through the instinctive craving, common 
to all ages, for material and visible embodiments of religious 
ideas, and must have been terribly seductive to a people to whom 
these were rigidly denied. 

The chief god worshiped by these heathen people was Baal, 
representing the sun, although he was worshiped under different 
names. Sometimes he was named Moloch, elsewhere Chemosh, 
but the worship was always fierce and cruel. His consort Astarte, 
or Ashtaroth, the moon and the planet Venus, had abominations 
peculiar to their worship. The influence of this false system 
was felt more by those living in the cities or along the sea coast, 
while those living in the valleys and shut off to a greater extent 
from intercourse with strangers, did not so much adopt the new 
religion as they neglected their own. There were indications 
throughout the period of the Judges, of the presence of a latent 
religious life in the people, which needed only to be aroused by 
some great occasion, when it would once more manifest itself. 
The long wilderness life of the Israelites had given them a strong 
desire for a settled home. This desire to enter in and enjoy the 
rich inheritance which had come to them, the land flowing with 
milk and honey, helped to lower the tone of their religious life and 
make them more inclined to be lenient toward their Canaanite 
neighbors. Mixed marriages became frequent and the step from 
this to taking in their idolatrous worship was a very short one. 
They had specially holy places for sacrifices and for pilgrimages. 
Possibly the descendants of the mixed multitude that came out 
from Egypt may have opened the way, but very soon there were 
others to follow them. It was not long until their sacred places 
were adopted by the Israelites and the worship of Jehovah here 
and there became merged into the prevailing idolatry. "They 
served the idols [of the Canaanites] : yea, they sacrificed their 
sons and {fieir daughters unto devils [Shedim, ox-gods], and shed 
innocent blood, even the blood of their sons and daughters, whom 



Deborah — the Heroic Woman 141 

they sacrificed unto the idols of Canaan : and the land was polluted 
with blood." 

The strong religious feeling which had commenced in the 
wilderness with Moses and was strengthened by the conquests, 
survived during Joshua's life and for many years afterward. Even 
the elders who survived him "had known all the works of Jehovah 
that he had done for the nation," through Joshua. This generation 
which had witnessed the wonderful help that God had given to his 
people, finally passed away. Eleazar, the high priest who suc- 
ceeded Aaron, died about the same time as Joshua. His son and 
successor, Phinehas, did much to keep up the old religious spirit 
even while the religious life of the nation was gradually drifting 
downward. Says Josephus concerning him, "So great was his 
courage and so remarkable his bodily strength, that he would 
never relinquish any undertaking, however difficult or dangerous, 
without gaining a complete victory." "After a time, however, he 
died, and with him the age of stern fidelity to the national covenant 
with Jehovah seems to have come to a close. Weary with years 
of struggle, and satisfied with what they had acquired, tempted to 
seek friendship with the Canaanites by the similarity of language, 
the opportunities of profit, the seductions of neighborhood, by 
their own want of military science and by the weakness of tribal 
division, their warlike feelings gave way to a desire for ease and 
quiet." 

There was a time when these Canaanites could have been 
driven out. When Joshua resigned his high office and went to his 
own home, and when the tribes dispersed to their own territories, 
the golden opportunity passed and never came back. In due course 
of time came the subjections and the miseries of a foreign yoke 
which Moses had foretold to them. "Because thou servedst not 
the Lord thy God with joyfulness, and with gladness of heart, for 
the abundance of all things; therefore shalt thou serve thine 
enemies which the Lord shall send against thee, in hunger and in 
thirst, and in nakedness, and in want of all things : and he shall 
put a yoke of iron upon thy neck, until he have destroyed thee." 
The period of the Judges is the heroic age in Israel. The historv 
of the Jewish nation during this time was a succession of oppres"- 
sions, and deliverances by divinely inspired leaders, sometimes 
arising in one part of the land and sometimes in another, in answer 



142 Women of the Bible 

to repeated calls on the Lord for help. The first cry for help 
was produced by an invader from the Euphrates, who compelled 
some of the tribes to pay him tribute for eight years. Othniel 
("the lion of God"), the nephew of the heroic Caleb, drove the 
oppressors from his borders and secured the quiet of the land for 
forty years. Next came the king of Moab, Eglon ("the bullock"), 
uniting his bands with related peoples, who overran the tribes of 
Benjamin and captured Jericho. Eighteen years' of tribulation 
and oppression followed. A deliverer came in the person of Ehud, 
a Benjaminite, who personally slew the king and raised a body of 
men with whom he rushed down to the fords of the Jordan to 
prevent the return of the enemy back to Moab. As a result of 
his daring achievement, the land enjoyed comparative quiet for a 
period of eighty years. This was on the southeast, but sometime 
after this came one from the opposite side, the Philistines' region, 
from which, in after years, they were to be so much annoyed. To 
assist them, one, Shamgar, appeared at the head of a company of 
men, gathered, most likely, in Dan and Benjamin, and drove back 
and slew a foraging party of six hundred men who had come up 
to rob and plunder the people. This could not have Ueen the first, 
for we find the Israelites at this time so disarmed that Shamgar's 
only weapon was the long and heavy ironed ox-goad, still used in 
Palestine. 

It is difficult from the brief record given in the book of Judges 
to keep a correct chronological account of the various deliverances 
as they appear. While there are oppressions and deliverances in 
one section, there are periods of national growth in others. After 
a period of peace and quiet, we find that the richer ones among 
the people sat on costly saddles and carpets, while the chief men 
rode on white asses. The tribes on the east side of the Jordan had 
vast flocks there. The men of Dan gave themselves to their sea- 
faring pursuits. Commerce was increasing; the routes of the 
caravans were more frequently used ; and the tribes were growing- 
richer. This, in time, was checked, in part, possibly, by the north- 
ern tribes turning again to the worship of Baal; and once more 
God let loose upon them their enemies, in order to drive them back 
by the stern discipline of oppression. 

During Joshua's time a confederacy had been formed of the 
northern kingdoms with Hazor as the center, and they prepared 



Deborah — the Heroic Woman 143 

to make war against Joshua. When they had mustered their 
forces for battle, there "were much people, even as the sand that is 
upon the seashore in multitude, with horses and chariots very 
many." They encamped near the waters of Merom. Joshua 
waited at Gilgal until he received marching orders. He soon 
received them, and made one of his rapid marches and came, and 
all Israel "with him, against them by the waters of Merom sud- 
denly; and they fell upon them." He thoroughly demoralized the 
enemy, and cut them down with fearful slaughter. Having thus 
broken the enemy into fragments, he followed up the victory by 
the capture of their cities. One hundred years go by, and this 
kingdom of Hazor has recovered itself in part, and a successor 
to the Jabin of that day now reigns. With a force of war chariots 
increased to nine hundred, he has overpowered the Israelites and 
kept them in subjection for over twenty years. Fortresses on the 
borders of Jezreel, held by him and his allies, had cut off all help 
from the southern tribes, and the distress in the North was very 
great. 

The sad condition of the people can be inferred from references 
made in the song of Deborah. This will, in part, account for the 
unwillingness of some of the tribes to send men to battle as well as 
for the hesitation of Barak himself. They had been so oppressed 
that all life and energy had been taken out of them. Like their 
fathers in Egypt, no doubt, they thought they had better endure 
the ills they had than fly to others that they knew not of. She 
sings, j'The ways lay desert, and the travellers went by winding 
paths." This would be a very natural circumstance. The people, 
where they traveled the common and frequented roads, would be 
so plundered, stripped, and sometimes, perhaps, slain, that for 
their own personal safety they would abandon these roads and 
travel from place to place securely, only by obscure and unfre- 
quented paths. Traveling itself would almost cease, and people 
wouldkave their homes as little as possible unless in cases of dire 
necessity. Even in a part of Italy in our own day, such a condi- 
tion of things prevailed. It is only within a comparatively few 
years that traveling in Palestine has been entirely safe. 

Then again, we are told "the villages ceased." Some say the 
word "villages" should read "rulers." If so, it would mean that 
the rulers of the land, the magistrates who should have protected 



144 Women of the Bible 

life and enforced the law, were inactive, practically powerless. It 
may be they had no power to carry out and enforce their plans, or 
they may have yielded to the general recklessness of the times and 
made no effort. If it means ''villages," as many suppose, it would 
mean a very unsettled condition of society. In times of trouble a 
rural population would be subjected to continual annoyance and 
plundering, against which there could be no defense. The only 
thing possible for them would be to gather their movable property 
and go out into the nearest walled town as a means of defense, 
leaving the villages deserted and giving up all cultivation of the 
ground, excepting such as should be within or in close proximity 
to the larger towns. Not only would the villages thus become 
empty, but the peasantry itself would cease. 

We are also informed that "a shield or a spear was not found 
in forty thousand in Israel." These were weapons of warfare, 
and the natural impression is that the people had been disarmed by 
their enemies; so the expression simply means, the people, the 
whole people, were utterly without anus. Shamgar and his men 
used ox-goads for weapons. There came a time when the Philis- 
tines had the upper hand, that they deprived the Israelites of the 
means to sharpen their own tools themselves, possibly to prevent 
such a use of them. "But all the Israelites went down to the 
Philistines, to sharpen every man his share, and his coulter, and 
his ax, and his mattock. Yet they had a file for the mattocks, and 
for the coulters, and for the forks, . . . and to sharpen the 
goads' (I. Samuel 13 : 20, 21). This may in part account for the 
reluctance of many to go into the combat and once more strike 
for the nation's deliverance. There could be but one result with 
unarmed men revolting against an organized and well-armed foe. 
If it be asserted that those who finally took the field must have 
had arms, there may have been some concealed that were not 
given up, or they may have gone into the combat as did Shamgar 
and his men. 

And now in this distressing hour, when men's hearts are fail- 
ing them and they have no hope of any bettering of their condi- 
tion, deliverance comes to them through a woman. The account 
given us begins very modestly with no flourish of trumpets and no 
surprise on the part of any one. With the high honor which the 
Jewish nation and the Jewish' captors put upon women, there was 



Deborah — the Heroic Woman 145 

no occasion for any. "And Deborah, a prophetess, the wife of 
Lapidoth, she judged Israel at that time." "No man said, Why 
are we judged by a woman?" "The answer was in her eyes— she 
looked divine; the vindication was in her judgment; when she 
spake, the spirit of wisdom seemed to approve every tone of her 
voice. . . . The people came up to the famous old palm tree 
and told their tale to Deborah day by day, until her motherly heart 
began to ache and her trouble was very great. She saw, as moth- 
erly eyes only can see, how the wrinkles were deepening, how the 
faces were not so plump as they used to be, how strong men were 
bending under unseen burdens." The terms "prophet" and 
"prophetess" are somewhat extensive and, for this reason, a little 
ambiguous in their signification. They are at times applied to 
persons extraordinarily endowed of God with the power of fore- 
telling future events, of working miracles, or chanting forth God's 
praises under supernatural direction, sometimes to those in- 
structed in divine knowledge by the inspiration of the spirit of 
God, and thus appointed to act as interpreters of his will. Deborah 
was, most likely, one of this latter class. A woman of holiness, 
prudence, and knowledge of divine things, and thus well qualified 
to judge the people, "she would act as God's mouthpiece, correct- 
ing abuses, redressing grievances, and determining causes, espe- 
cially in matters pertaining to the law and the worship of God 
She was resorted to by the people of Israel from different parts 
for judgment or counsel relative to subjects of general interest to 
the nation or that part of it where she resided and discharged her 
duty by expounding the Scriptures and acting the magistrate in 
these several districts to put the laws in execution." That she 
was a prophetess in the sense of foretelling future events, is plainly 
inferred from the assurance of victory she gave to Barak and the 
prediction that the commander of the enemies' forces should fall 
by the hand of a woman. A high poetic inspiration is seen in the 
ode m which she celebrates the praises of the Lord for the victory 
of Israel. 

In this disturbed condition of affairs, we find the people had 
a judge." These, so far as we can learn, were not originally a 
part of God's plan for the government of the people. They were 
to be taught by the high priest, who should be the medium of the 
divine communications which should be made to them, while God 



146 Women of the Bible 

have held the position thus gained during their mem , 

^ 5 the Pe% 0s? e^ ri --*S St 

tary emergency arose 1 hey w metimes elected by the 

££ tayf^TCiot transmit the ***** £* 
Sndants! neither did they appoint -™ o uith% Sft 

not enact laws, nor impose taxes on the ^J^ s without 

Zter or iitce, than of any ^jgS^^SSS 
in the office. No salary or income was attached to it J { 

distinction. They were surrouncea u > eauipage. They 

or ceremony ; they had no court* ^^fjS^ deserv e 
were, in general, men ^^^Z ^ ^selves. They 
well of then country ^f* "™ 1 ^ ^lves as especially called 
always considered and conducted hen*e ves a P ^ ^ 

of God, relying ^.^Jj^K^ge. ^or- 
their chief care to bring the c°unt^en ™ £re models of tl ,ie 
ship, and obey him On the whole they ^ 

patriotism and moral worth In the case o hgr 

tion seems to have grown out o f th respect and hon p 
as one taught of ^3^3?^ to, and her 
SS^d powlr and position made her virtually the >dge of 

the Tht n is a beautiful and anticmc simplicity i^escri £ 
of her, dwelling under a remarkable and noted tee 

tlle BO ° k t °i So:at S ed W Seen R^and Bethel on Mount 
It is pointed out a s locate I, he ^ ^ ^ 

Ephraim,' and must have been a t w ass0 ciations of 

mark. The palm is mtimately com ™ { but it is n ow 




DEBORAH 



/ 



Deborah — the Heroic Woman 147 

of which trees were visible in the seventh, some in the twelfth, and 
a few in the seventeenth century, and we thought we saw one 
lonely resident there a few years since. We are not quite sure 
whether the palm grove, a pleasant and shady recess, was the place 
of her ordinary dwelling habitation, or simply that her judgment 
seat was here in the open air, for hearing the applications that 
were made to her. It was very near the confines of the tribes of 
Benjamin and Ephraim. 

Either because of some special revelation from God, or because 
of her own patriotic convictions that something must be done to 
save her people, she determines that the bondage must be broken. 
When the thought and purpose had fully taken possession of her 
own soul, it was only a question of time until she should arouse 
others. Her songs and her utterances, repeating the mighty deeds 
of the past which God had wrought for them, and their weakness 
now in turning away from him and submitting to be slaves, once 
more aroused the religious zeal which had been dormant in many 
minds. Her influence and her faith became contagious, and prepa- 
rations were made for an uprising of the people. A leader com- 
petent to lead such a disobedient and down-trodden people must 
be found, a man who has a faith of his own, and who is able to 
inspire a similar faith in the soldiers who shall be gathered. She 
fixed her mind on a man dwelling in a place called Kedesh, a few 
miles north of where Tiberias now stands. His name is Barak, 
"the thunderbolt," an Israelite in heart, though the spirit of the 
times had given him a Phoenician name. He must have already 
gained some reputation for courage or loyalty to God to have been 
known so far away from the boundaries of Benjamin. Deborah 
is the messenger to bring to him the divine call. "He could do 
nothing without her head; nor she without his hands; both to- 
gether they made a complete deliverance." 

Deborah was called of God, as were the other judges, to repre- 
sent his will to the people. She was called, no doubt, because best 
fitted by lofty faith, by sound character, by high aspirations, to 
make this representation. "The eternal God had inspired her, a 
woman and a wife in Israel, with his spirit expressly to do his 
will and to make manifest to her countrymen how little he is the 
respecter of persons, judging only by hearts perfect in his service 
and spirits -willing fot the work, heeding neither the weakness nor 



148 Women of the Bible 

the apparent inability of one sex compared with the great natural 
powers of the other.'' She was, as are the Jewish women, in- 
tensely patriotic. She was a living representative of the highest 
aspirations of the nation. The song she sang expressed her 
intense religious life. "In order to understand her more fully, 
we must think of the condition of women in those days when 
under the heel of the oppressor. The barriers and protections 
which the laws of Moses threw around the Jewish women, 
inspired in them a sense of self-respect and personal dignity which 
rendered the brutal outrages inflicted upon captives yet more 
intolerable. The law of Moses commanded the Jewish warrior 
who took a captive woman to respect her person and her woman- 
hood. If he desired her, it must be as his lawful wife ; and even 
as a husband he must not force himself upon her at once. He 
must bring her to his home and allow her a month to reconcile 
herself to her captivity before he took her unto himself. But 
among the nations around, woman was the prey of whoever could 
seize and appropriate her." 

The command of God is made known to Barak. It is the 
divine will that he shall at once go forth and raise an army. By 
argument and persuasion, and with the help she can give or has 
already given him in awakening the people, he must gather from 
the children of Naphtali and Zebulun ten thousand men. Other 
tribes are not to be excluded, but as these had probably been the 
greatest sufferers under the oppressive rule of Jabin and were 
nearest at hand, they would be the most willing to respond. The 
fact that Barak was himself of the tribe of Naphtali and therefore 
well known to them, would no doubt help to rally many of them 
to his standard. He should gather them about Tabor, a mountain- 
ous peak some twenty-five hundred feet high, on the northeastern 
side of the plain of Jezreel. "When arrived at the summit of this 
mountain, the traveler is astonished to find an oval of half a mile 
in extent, commanding the finest view anywhere obtained in the 
whole confines of Palestine." No better place could have been 
chosen for the gathering of the people. It could not be attacked 
by the war chariots of the enemy, and it was a lofty tower from 
which could be observed all their movements. When this was 
done, God would attract to the River Kishon the army of Jabin 
under the leadership of Sisera, and then their whole army should 



Deborah — the Heroic Woman 149 

be delivered into Barak's hands. By what means they should be 
drawn, we do not know, but most likely their counsels and plans 
would be so overruled that it would seem to them best to go. 
There is an intimation (Judges 4: 12) that information was given 
to Sisera by some of the Kenites who lived near Tabor, that the 
Israelites were revolting and were gathering together under Barak 
at Mt. Tabor, to break the yoke of bondage. 

The plain of Jezreel has been the battleground in Palestine for 
centuries. It is, to put it roughly, in the form of a triangle, the 
base or east line about fifteen miles long, the north side formed by 
the hills of Galilee about twelve miles long, and the south side 
skirted by the Samaria range about eighteen miles. Through its 
apex on the west flows the Kishon River, draining its waters into 
the Mediterranean. Here fought Thotmes III., Rameses II., and 
Rameses III. Here, after Barak, fought Gideon and the Midian- 
ites ; here Saul fell upon the Philistines, Josiah before the Egyp- 
tians under Necho; here, in later times, fought Vespasian, the 
crusaders, and Bonaparte ; and on the mountains of Gilboa, at its 
east end, Saul and Jonathan perished. 

While the author of the Book of Hebrews classes Barak among 
those who had true faith, yet his faith was weak. He was not 
willing to go alone. He could not trust himself nor his soldiery. 
Because profoundly convinced that God spake through Deborah, 
he earnestly desired her presence. If she were present, he then 
felt he had a pledge and earnest of the divine blessing. She could 
thus be an oracle to him when he desired to communicate with her, 
and a source of inspiration and encouragement to his soldiers. He 
should have gone on in obedience to the divine will, but at times it 
is difficult for even the best of men to break away from undue 
dependence on an arm of flesh, even when they have the express 
declaration of God that he will stand by and deliver them. Even 
Moses hesitated when God would have sent him, so the honor 
intended for him alone was divided with Aaron. The Lord yields 
to his wish, and Deborah, under divine prompting, consents to 
accompany him, but he is informed that he must share the glory 
of the victory with a woman. The plan he proposes will not be 
for his own glory. He, no doubt, knew that if she went with him, 
it would diminish his honor, yet he insisted on her accompanying 



150 Women of the Bible 

him, preferring to share with her the glory of the victory rather 
than to bear the defeat, if such there should be, alone. 

They make their way north to Kedesh and here they organize 
the revolt. Emissaries were sent among the members of the tribes 
of Zebulun and Naphtali to meet him at Kedesh. Before long, 
men gathered about him to the number of ten thousand. This was 
in the section where the tyranny of Jabin had been most keenly 
felt, and here men could be rallied the most readily. This force 
was gathered not without difficulty, and having secured it, Barak 
marched southward and encamped on Mt. Tabor. This is the 
first time that celebrated mountain is named in the Scriptures. 
The national spirit has not been so aroused for years. Issachar 
sent bands of volunteers. The Ephraimites gathered from their 
hills and crowds came from Benjamin, the men so famous with 
the sling as to be represented to throw stones to a hair's breadth 
and not miss. Manassah, both east and west of the Jordan, sent 
her chiefs as well as her men. But the absent ones were as con- 
spicuous as those who reported for duty. The people of Meroz 
could have done good service, greatly helped their brethren, and 
advanced God's cause ; but they refused to come and thereby drew 
down on themselves a curse which was carried out by their extinc- 
tion. The Reubenites debated the matter, but the result of their 
much talking ended in allowing their brethren to help themselves, 
while they remained at ease among their sheepfolds. Gad refused 
to come ; Dan would not leave his boats at Joppa ; Asher remained 
in the creeks and bays of Acre ; nothing is heard of Simeon and 
Judah. To Naphtali and Zebulun was given the palm for sending 
the largest enrollment and for jeopardizing their lives in the most 
dangerous places. 

The commander of the army of the Canaanites bears the title 
of Sisera, "the leader." He collects his forces in Jezreel, the only 
place in northern Palestine where his war chariots would have 
sufficient ground on which to maneuver. He made his head- 
quarters at Taanach, a Canaanitish town or fortress. Mt. Tabor 
was about sixteen miles to the northeast. The whole surface of 
the plain is seamed with water courses, receiving the drainage of 
the hills, and after storms these swell into torrents. They all 
unite on the northwest into one stream, known as Kishon, or the 
''winding/' which flows into the Bay of Acre through a channel 



Deborah — the Heroic Woman 151 

about fifteen feet deep and from fifteen to twenty yards wide. 
About Tabor itself are a number of holes which after a rain are 
turned into treacherous quagmires. 

The signal for the attack was given by Deborah. "Up," she 
cried to Barak, "this and no other is the day ; is not the Lord gone 
out before thee?" He had promised to draw the army of sfsera 
to Tabor, and they are here. If the Lord has accomplished this 
much for. him, he will lead him on to further victory. Barak 
becomes inspired with a fresh courage. Instead of simply main- 
taining his place on the mountain where the chariots and the 
scythes of the enemy cannot reach him, with his inferior force, 
inferior in numbers and no doubt poorly armed, he sallies down 
into the level plain, and thus, by giving Sisera every advantage, the 
victory will only be the more glorious. This unexpected charge of 
Barak seems to have been ordered by Jehovah, to create, on the 
part of the enemy, a supernatural panic which soon threw them 
into confusion, men, horses, and chariots becoming intermingled 
so that they fell rapidly under the edge of the Hebrew sword 
while others 'sought safety in flight. Josephus gives this probable 
account of the terrific scene, when it is said "the stars in their 
courses fought against Sisera" : "When they were come to a close 
fight, then came down from heaven a great storm with a -vast 
quantity of rain and hail, and the wind blew the rain in the face of 
the Canaanites and so darkened their eyes that their armies and 
their kings were of no advantage to them, nor would the coldness 
of the air permit the soldiers to make use of their swords ; while 
the storm did not much inconvenience the Israelites because it 
came on their backs. They also took much courage upon the appre- 
hension that God was assisting them, that they fell upon the very 
midst of their enemies and slew a great number of them; so thus 
some of them fell by the Israelites, some fell by their own hands, 
and not a few were killed by their own chariots." This account 
of the great rain is in keeping with the statement that numbers of 
the fugitives were drowned in the River Kishon, which is much 
swollen by heavy rains. So great was the slaughter that the 
Psalmist afterwards spoke of the dead as manuring the ground 
(Psalms 83 : 10). The day was hopelessly lost to the magnificent 
"leader" and the only thing left was for him to escape with his 
life. 



152 Women of the Bible 

A wonderful parallel to this victory of Deborah and Barak is 
recorded by Plutarch in his "Life of Timoleon." That general at 
the Battle of the Crimesus had attacked the Carthaginians; but 
their heavy armor and stout shields easily repelled the Greek 
spears. "Suddenly, however, when it had come to sword thrusts, 
violent peals of thunder and vivid flashes of light burst from the 
mountains, and the darkness, which had been hovering about the 
higher grounds and the crests of the hills, descended on the place 
of battle, bringing a tempest of rain, wind, and hail with it on the 
backs of the Greeks, but full on the face of the Carthaginians. 
The rain beating on them, and the lightning dazzling them, dis- 
tressed the inexperienced, and in particular the claps of thunder 
and the noise of the rain and hail beating on their arms, pre- 
venting them from hearing the commands of their officers. In 
addition to this, the very wind was a great hindrance to the Car- 
thaginians, who were loaded with heavy armor; and their skirts 
underneath getting drenched, the foldings about the bosom filled 
with water and grew cumbersome to them as they fought, making 
it easy for the Greeks to throw them down and impossible for 
them to rise again with weapons in their hands. The river, Cri- 
mesus, also swollen, partly from the rain and partly by the stop- 
page of its course from the number passing through it, overflowed 
its banks and the level ground on its sides was filled with rivulets 
and currents that had no certain channels, in which the Carthagin- 
ians stumbled and rolled about and found themselves in great 
difficulty." 

Sisera might have fled in his royal chariot, but it would have 
been recognized and his life would thereby be forfeited. He fled 
on foot, hoping that undiscovered he might get beyond danger. 
It reminds us of Bonaparte on the field of Waterloo, quitting his 
chariot and seeking to escape on horseback. He fled to the encamp- 
ment of Heber, the Kenite, who was of the descendants of Jethro 
and whose ancestors had come to Palestine with the Israelites. No 
doubt, Sisera hoped to claim here the protection which, when 
granted, is never dishonored. The chief was not at home, but Jael, 
the wife, invited him unto her own part of the tent which he knew 
no person would enter without her consent. Pie asked for a 
drink of water, which he knew, if granted, meant an additional 
pledge of her protection. She did more than he asked. She gave 



Deborah — the Heroic Woman 153 

him some curdled milk to drink, which was esteemed as a delicacy 
and which to a traveler, tired and hot, became a strong and speedy 
restorative. The beverage having been received with thanks, the 
tired man lies down to rest in perfect security, as he thinks, while 
she covers him with a cloak. When he was in a profound slumber, 
she took one of the sharp spikes or pins which held the tent in 
its place, and with a hammer in her hand, she crept up quietly and 
stealthily and with one tremendous blow sent it crashing through 
his temples, pinning him to the ground. One convulsive bound, a 
contortion of agony, and he was a lifeless corpse. It was not long 
until another man was admitted to her tent. Barak was on the 
track of the fleeing Sisera. Without waiting to be asked any ques- 
tions, she said, "Come, I will show thee the man whom thou seek- 
est." He entered, and there the scourge of Israel lay dead with the 
iron nail fast in his temples, dishonored by death from a woman's 
hand. 

It is hard, with our increased life and knowledge, to justify 
Jael; we have no occasion, however, to do so. There arc some 
extenuating circumstances. Says one writer, "Jael knew that 
God had crowned the courageous effort of Israel with success; 
a great battle had been won; and now the flying Canaanite leader 
is brought by an apparent chance into her very tent ; he is in her 
power and she can bruise the head of the corrupt race and destroy 
the Canaanites in their chief. She immediately pronounced it to 
be an opportunity put in her way by Providence, that Providence 
which plainly designed that this sacred race should possess the land 
in the place of the old stock. She kills Sisera as an enemy of God." 
Following the magnificent victory, which was the beginning of 
the end of the kingdom of Jabin, and in which victory Deborah 
was the chief instrument, comes that wonderful song of praise to 
God on the part of Deborah. As we study it, shall we not say the 
effort of genius was intensified by the promptings of divine inspi- 
ration? As a very ancient poem, as a song coming from a warm 
religious nature, and indited by the divine spirit, it is very pre- 
cious. It is a source of encouragement to the good and a warning 
to the wicked, a song of triumph for God's people in all ages. It 
is one of the noblest expressions of devout patriotism in all litera- 
ture. With the exception of the chorus of Miriam, it is the oldest 



154 Women of the Bible 

poem by a female author on record. Herder, in his "Spirit of 
Hebrew Poetry," gives an interesting commentary on it. We 
give a revision of it, modified in some respects as he suggests : 

"Praise ye Jehovah for the avenging of Israel 
Where the people willingly offered themselves. 
Hear, oh, ye kings ; give ear, oh, ye princes. 
I will sing praise unto Jehovah ; 
I will praise Jehovah, God of Israel; 
Jehovah, when thou wentest out trom Seir. 
When thou marchest from Edom. 
The earth trembled and the heavens dropped, 
The clouds also poured down water." 

We next have a picture of an enslaved people who were in 
constant danger of their lives because of wicked men and yet had 
no arms with which to protect themselves : 

"In the days of Shamgar, the son of Anath, 
In the days of Jael, 
The highways were unoccupied, 
And travelers walked through byways ; 
The inhabitants ceased from the villages, 
Till 1, Deborah, arose, 
I arose a mother in Israel; 
They went after strange gods ; 
Then came the war to their gates ; 
Was there then a shield or a spear 
Among forty thousand in Israel?" 

Her heart throbs for those who, from all sections, had heard 
her call and had come to the help of their country : 

"My heart throbs to the governors of Israel, 
That offered themselves willingly among the people. 
Bless ye Jehovah ; 
Speak, ye that ride on white asses, 
Ye that sit in judgment, 
And ye that walk by the way, 

They that are delivered from the noise of archers, 
In the place of drawing water. 

Then shall they rehearse the righteous acts of Jehovah ; 
His righteous acts toward the inhabitants of the villages; 
Then shall the people go down to the gates. 
Awake, awake, Deborah, 
Awake! Awake! Utter a song! 
Arise, Barak, and lead captivity captive, 
Thou son of Abinoam." 



Deborah — the Heroic Woman 155 

She remembers the courage which some had carried into the 
conflict. For those who were courageous, she has words of good 
cheer. For those who were selfish and cowardly and who only 
considered their own ease and comfort and not the good of the 
nation, she has arrows of scorn : 



"It was but a small remnant that went forth against the mighty; 
The people of Jehovah went with me against the mighty. 
The march began with Ephraim, 
The root of the army was from him ; 
With him did thou come, Benjamin. 
Out of Machir came down the leaders, 
Out of Zebulon the marshals of forces ; 
And the princes of Issachar were with Deborah, 
Issachar, the life guard of Barak, 
Sprung like a hind into the battle field." 

Others, among them Reuben, had been sufficiently interested to 
discuss the matter proposed, but, like so many other things, it 
ended in mere talk. The poetess utters some well deserved flings 
at such lack of a genuine patriotic spirit : 

"By the brooks of Reuben, there were great talkings and inquiries ; 
Why abodest thou in thy sheepfolds, Reuben? 
Was it to hear the bleating of the flocks? 

By the brooks of Reuben there were great talks (but nothing more) 
Gilead too abode beyond Jordan ; 
And why did Dan remain in his ships? 
Asher staid on the sea shore and remained in his harbor, 
Zebulon and Naphtali risked their lives unto the death, 
In the high places of the field of battle." 

Then follows a picture of the battle and how the dreadful 
storm and rain helped forward the good work : 

"The kings came and fought. 
The kings of Canaan in Taanach, by the water of Megiddo; 
They brought away no new treasure ; 
They fought; from heaven the stars in their courses, 
They fought against Sisera. 
The river Kishon swept them down, 
That ancient river Kishon. 
O. my soul, walk forth with strength! 
There was the rattling of hoofs of horses. 
They rushed back — the horses of the mighty." 



156 Women of the Bible 

And now the wages of those who refused : 

"Curse ye Meroz, saith the angel of Jehovah, 
Curse ye bitterly the inhabitants thereof; 
Because they came not to the help of Jehovah, 
To the help of Jehovah against the mighty." 

Then follows a blessing on the woman who has slain the op- 
pressor of her sex. The writer, who thus rejoices, remembers the 
outrages practiced on her sisters : 

"Blessed above women be Jael, the wife of Heber, the Kenite! 
Blessed should she be above women in the tent. 
He asked water and she gave him milk; 
She brought forth butter in a lordly dish ; 
She put her hand to the nail, 
Her right hand to the workman's hammer, 
With the hammer she smote Sisera, 
She smote off his head, 
When she had struck through his temple; 
At her feet he bowed, he fell, he lay prostrate, 
At her feet he bowed, he fell ; 
Where he bowed, there he fell down dead." 

This poetess, who thus for all time stands up in defense of her 
sex, by a few delicate touches of her pen gives us a picture of the 
dreadful fate which might have come to the women of Judah had 
this man not been conquered : 

"The mother of Sisera looked out at the window, 
She cried through the lattice, 
Why delay the wheels cf his chariot? 
Why tarries the rattle of his ho'se and hoofs? 
Her wise ladies answered, Yea, she spake herself, 
Have they not won? Have they not divided the prey? 
To every man a virgin or two? 

To Sisera, a prey of divers color';, of divers colors and gold em- 
broidery 
Meet for the next of them that take the spoil." 

Then follows that magnificent conclusion which rolls up like 
the swell of the ocean : 

"So let all thine enemies perish, O Jehovah, 
But let those that love thee shine torth as the sun in his strength." 



Deborah — the Heroic Woman 157 

"As the song dies away, so passes all mention of Deborah. No 
other fragment of song from her pen has come down from her age 
to us. This one song, like a rare fragment of deep sea flower, 
broken off by a storm of waters, has floated up to tell of her. We 
shall see, as we follow down the lines of history, that women of 
this lofty, poetic inspiration were the natural products of the 
Jewish laws and institution.'' 

The results of this wonderful victory, due to Deborah's plan- 
ning and her courageous faith in God, are results for all time. Not 
only did the land of Israel have rest and quiet for the next forty 
years, but greater blessings than these came to them. "No other 
battle ever after needed to be fought with the Canaanites ; and the 
Israelites themselves learned a lesson of the advantages of national 
union which influenced their whole future. Their self-reliance, 
moreover, was strengthened; for it was their first great victory 
since the days of Joshua, and they gained it against the most dis- 
couraging odds. As a lesson in war, it was invaluable, and its 
results quickened the passion for freedom which already had 
begun to root itself in the heart of Israel. Nor was it without a 
powerful effect on their religious history, that their national 
degradation and misery had ended as soon as they abandoned 
idolatry and sought the favor and help of Jehovah. That the 
result was due to him and not to themselves, however valiantly 
they had fought, was not only proudly owned, but enshrined in the 
poetry of the nation,," 



Sfepfjtfjafj'g Jiaugfjter 
tfje Heboteb (But 



"And I went mourning, 'No fair Hebrew boy 

Shall smile away my maiden blame among 
The Hebrew mothers' — emptied of all joy, 
Leaving the dance and song, 

"Leaving the olive-gardens far below, 

Leaving the promise of my bridal bower, 
The valleys of grape-loaded vines that glow 
Beneath the battled tower. 

"The light white cloud swam over us. Anon 
We heard the lion roaring from his den ; 
We saw the large white stars rise one by one, 
Or, from the darken'd glen, 

"Saw God divide the night with flying flame, 
And thunder on the everlasting hills. 
I heard Him, for he spake and grief became 
A solemn scorn of ills. 

"When the next moon was roll'd into the sky, 

Strength came to me that equalFd my desire. 
How beautiful a thing it was to die 
For God and for my sire! 



i( 



It comforts me in this one thought to dwell. 

That I subdued me to my father's will; 
Because the kiss he gave me, ere I fell, 

Sweetens the spirit still. 

'Moreover, it is written that my race 

Hew'd Amnion, hip and thigh, from Aroer 
On Arnon unto Minneth." 

— Alfred Tennyson. 



JcpJjrtjafi's JDaugfjtrr— tfje JBenoteti <£ne 



JEPH1 HAH was the ninth judge of the Israelites, and for a 
period of six years lie made them a very acceptable ruler 
I le was a man of great courage. He was of the tribe of 
Manasseh, and his father's name was Gilead. Whether he was the 
son of a concubine, meaning thereby a legal wife though one of 
ower rank and possibly a foreign woman, or whether she was a 
lewd woman publicly addicted to vice, our ignorance of the actual 
state of manners and of society in those rude and uncultured 
fames will not permit us to determine. In the eyes of his half- 
brothers, there was a disgrace attached to his birth, which thev 
resented whatever his rank. No blame can be attached to him 
but the rather to his parents, for his own record is a verv deserv- 
ing and commendable one. 

There were other children in the family, sons of a different 
mother, and when they grew up they began to assert their right to 
the inheritance. Even if the son of a concubine who was a sec- 
ondary wife so far as we have any knowledge of the customs of 
that age, Jephthah was not entitled to any part of the inheritance 
Sarah insisted that the son of the bondwoman should not have any 
part in the inheritance with her own son (Genesis 21 • 10) Abra 
ham gave his property to his legal son, Isaac, but he gave presents 
to the son of the concubine and sent them away so they should not 
trouble the heir. If the connection was an illegal one, much less 
could he expect to inherit any of the property. Under this thin 
pretense, his brothers may have sought to do him injury for there 
was no reason why they should drive him away from his father's 
house. \\ hatever may have been the underlying reason for their 
conduct, he felt it was a gross outrage on his rights, and one which 
the elders of the people abetted, at least connived at. When the 
time came that they needed the help that he was so competent to 
render, he reminded them of the great wrong done him 

As a result of their unbrotherly conduct, he leaves home and 
dwells in the land of Tob, a section of country so called most likely 



162 Women of the Bible 

because of some one who was its first or possibly most distin- 
guished citizen. Its location is not known to us, but it was prob- 
ably near to Gilead, but on the frontier of the Hebrew territories. 
Having been thus driven away from his own home, he becomes an 
adventurer and gathers about him a number of brave but idle men 
who recognized his skill as a leader. With these men he made 
forages into the neighboring territories, and from the spoils thus 
obtained, he found means of subsistence. As he was not far from 
the Amorites, he would most likely make raids into their territory 
in retaliation for the incursions which they made on the children of 
Israel. This kind of a life was not thought so dishonorable in 
those days and with these people as it would seem to us, even in 
our own time. "An Arab or a Tartar desires no higher or better 
distinction than that of a successful military robber ; and to make 
that fame unsullied, it is only necessary that his expedition should 
not be against his own nation or tribe." David led this kind of a 
life during his wanderings, and gathered around him such a class 
of men as we now find associated with Jephthah. This kind of a 
life made many exploits necessary, and would give him a skill and 
experience which few others would possess, and make his name 
more or less famous as a prominent leader for times of peril. 

Jair, a Gileadite, was the reigning judge during the early his- 
tory of Jephthah. He does not seem to have been a very vigorous 
ruler. He kept up some appearance of royal state, for his thirty 
sons rode like princes on as many ass colts. He secured some 
additional territory upon which were villages, each of these having 
one of his sons as a kind of sheik. This sort of fragmentary, 
Arab, patriarchal government had lasted for a number of years, 
and not with the best natural results. "Everywhere the national 
spirit was dying away and the national religion decaying. The 
tribes were in part being lost in the heathen communities around. 
In the northern border, the idols of Syria and Sidon replaced 
Jehovah or were worshiped with him. On the southwest, those of 
the Philistines; and on the east, those of Moab and Amnion had 
many followers. But this, apparently, only increased the general 
misery. Both in the east and west enemies worried them, for they 
had no strength, such as union gives, to hold their ground. The 
necessity for a monarchy was being brought home to all. While 
the Canaanites under kings had been steadily recovering national 



Jephthuh's Daughter — the Devoted One 163 

vigor, the Hebrews of the west had decayed, and those of the east 
were sinking into mere roving shepherds. The old Canaanite race 
of Amnion, crushed by their forefathers under Joshua, had risen 
once more to formidable power, and not only lorded it over Gad 
and Reuben, but, crossing the Jordan, invaded Judah, Benjamin, 
and Ephraim. Nor was the western side of* the country less 
harassed, for there the Philistines from the sea coast were plun- 
dering and spoiling far and 'near.' " 

When the bondage of Amnion had grown unendurable and the 
people contemplated a revolt, the elders gathered at Mizpah, "the 
watchtower," to select a leader to take charge of the campaign. 
The fame of this man had already reached them, and while making 
raids on the surrounding people, they knew he was still loyal to the 
Hebrew faith. They search him out in his present location and 
ask him to be their captain for them and the people they represent, 
to make war on Ammon. While a great wrong had been done 
him, it was not without its compensations, for it had developed 
his skill and had given him such an opportunity to display his 
ability in the eyes of his countrymen, that they looked to him as 
the coming man. He has tried his strength, is conscious of his 
power, and does not propose to yield too readily. He chided them 
for hating him and expelling him from his father's house. We are 
not sure that they actually aided in this matter, yet if they refrained 
from punishing the guilty parties, they made 'themselves respon- 
sible for them. "Magistrates that have the power to protect those 
that are injured, if they do not do them right, really do them 
wrong." When Joseph's brethren came to him, he humbled them 
before he made himself known to them. So this man proposes 
that these officials, in this their time of distress, should know that 
they have injured him, and thus should have opportunity to repent, 
and become more sensible of the obligations resting upon them 
hereafter. 

They confess that they are conscious of the wrong done him, 
and that he has just cause for complaint. They have come now 
to make reparation for the wrong done, and as a proof of the 
sincerity of their professions they offer him the first place in the 
nation, and this shall more than counterbalance any dishonor which 
by their neglect, they have put upon him. Jephthah wa< not the 
first man, nor will he be the last, who, having been disparaged and 



164 Women of the Bible 

ill treated, needs only to wait patiently and God in his own good 
time will vindicate him. He finally puts this question to them, "If 
I go into this campaign, and the Lord shall deliver the Ammonites 
into my hand, shall I be not only your leader in this struggle, but 
your permanent judge?" After all, we cannot blame him for 
being a little cautious. The burned child dreads the fire. He had 
some reason for distrusting these very persons, and he needed 
some special guarantee of good faith. There might have been 
some feeling of ambition in the matter, but, allowing that there 
was, there was nothing wrong in desiring such a position, provided 
he showed his competency for it, if thereby he could build up the 
nation and better advance the interests of God's cause. The service 
was one in which he might endanger his own life, and if he suc- 
ceeded in freeing them from this bitter bondage, his efforts would 
demand some recognition. It may be that in this way he hoped to 
more effectually secure himself from any evil designs which his 
brethren might plot against him. 

The elders solemnly called God to witness the sincerity of 
their acts and invited his vengeance if they should prove false to 
their pledges. With this apparent honesty on their part, Jephthah 
did not care to harbor anv feeling against them for former wrongs. 
They accordingly repair to Mizpah, where no doubt there had come 
to be an authorized center of worship, as at Shiloh and elsewhere, 
and here the contract which the elders had made is ratified by oath 
in the presence of the people. They thus endorse the action of 
the elders, making it their own and excluding all misunderstandings 
hereafter.' Thus the banished one becomes the leader of the army, 
and, if successful, shall be the head of the nation during the 
remainder of his life. Nor is he the only banished one who has 
been invited back by the same people who, under other circum- 
stances, had driven him from their borders. 

The manner in which he proceeded to carry on the war at once 
prepossesses us in his favor and shows him not to be a wild, reck- 
less unprincipled freebooter, but a man of piety, of good common 
sense, and not unskilled in military matters. The instructions 
from' Moses were, not to make war with any of the nations out- 
side of Canaan until proposals of peace had been made (Deuter- 
onomy 20:10-18). Military chieftains are usually glad enough 
for any pretext whereby they may. make war on another nation, 



Jephthah' s Daughter — the Devoted One 165 

and especially if the probabilities for conquering them are at all 
flattering. This man, just made commander-in-chief of the army, 
and desirous of achieving for himself some notoriety, might have 
been justified had he gone ahead and made war at once on the 
people who had attacked Israel ; but if he can show them the wick- 
edness of theii conduct and persuade them to desist, he shall'pro- 
tect his own people and save the others from the sword. If 
Israel had wronged Amnion, they would gladly do her people 
justice. If. on the other hand, they had no defense to make but 
were themselves the oppressors, they must take the consequences. 
So he sends messengers to the king of Ammon saying, "What hast 
thou to do with me, that thou art come against me to fight me in 
my land?" 

The king of the Ammonites desired a pretext for a quarrel, 
and it speaks well for the Israelites when they can find nothing 
against them without going back three hundred years in their 
history. If there had been any real cause, it would have been 
pushed long before. The cause now put forth is, that when they 
came up out of Egypt, they had taken the land and had occupied 
it ever since. Jephthah seems to have been well read in the story 
of the Israelites and their journey from the land of bondage, al- 
though occurring some hundreds of years before ; and he proceeds 
to tell the king that they had indeed taken the territory but not 
from the Ammonites, for they had found it in possession of Sihon, 
king of the Amorites, and, having been attacked by him without 
cause, they had taken it from him in honorable warfare. So far 
were they from offering any violence to the children of Esau, that, 
when refused a passage through their country, they could have 
conquered theii way by force, but, rather than set foot on their 
territory, they had undergone the fatigue of a long march. In 
short, Jephthah shows him that the Ammonites had lost their 
lands in a contest with the Amorites; the Israelites had captured 
this territory from the Amorites who had waged an improper war 
against them ; God, the maker and owner of all things, had given 
this land to the Israelites by special grant ; they had had posses- 
sion of it without molestation for over three hundred years ; while 
the Israelites dwelt in Hebron, in Aroer, or on the coasts of 
Arnon, there had been opportunity to reclaim this if it had been 
illegally held, but it had not been attempted because of the justice 



166 Women of the Bible 

of their claim. It was now too late to put forth any such pretended 
claim as the king had just alleged. Having truth and justice on 
our side, we may appeal to the Lord, the judge, "to judge this day 
between the children of Israel and the children of Ammon." The 
appeal is now to the God of battles. 

We are informed that "the Spirit of the Lord came upon 
Jephthah." The Talmud interprets this to mean, "force of mind 
for great undertakings and bodily strength." It implies that he 
had some convincing testimony that his cause was a righteous one, 
that he should have skill and strength to secure the victory. He 
pushed out at once through Gilead and the adjoining sections to 
secure recruits to his little army before he should make the attack. 
As was somewhat common under the Mosaic dispensation, he 
made a vow to the Lord that if the Ammonites were delivered into 
his hands, whatsoever should meet him on his return should be 
sacrificed to the Lord. The contest began and continued until 
twenty cities had surrendered. They were made to share the same 
fate as the Canaanites. When the king supposed he should have 
an easy conquest over the man whom his brethren despised, he 
made a sad mistake. Jephthah, while vindicating his own honor, 
was also fighting the battle of the Lord, and his appeal for help 
was answered. W r e do not think his vow helped his cause, for it 
is a question if it were a proper one. God uses faulty instruments 
to accomplish his purpose, often because he can find no others ; 
and in this case, the success of the Jewish nation was of more 
value than the gratification of the hopes or wishes of one man. 
The nation that was seeking to destroy God's people was humbled, 
and Jephthah was the most convenient instrument at hand with 
which to do this work. 

It was not an unusual thing, nor an improper one, for Jephthah 
to make a vow. This practice of incurring voluntary obligations 
to the Deity on fulfillment of certain conditions, such as deliver- 
ance from dangers, success in enterprises, and the like, is very 
ancient and common in all systems of religion. The Jewish sys- 
tem was one of frequent offerings; hence in the practice of this, 
there may have grown up the belief that a voluntary obligation n r 
a self-imposed sacrifice had a special value in the sight of God. 
A vow would therefore take on after a time the solemnity of an 
oath, and would need to be religiously and scrupulously observed. 




JEPHTHAH'S DAUGHTER 



Jephthatis Daughter — the Devoted One 167 

Before a man made one, there might be a reason why it should not 
be made ; but when once assumed, a new obligation is contracted. 
The first mention of a vow is that of Jacob at Bethel. While a 
vow is therefore proper in itself, it must have respect to a lawful 
thing. By means of this no man can free himself from obligations 
to God. If God has forbidden anything, it cannot by a vow be 
made justifiable. 

In applying this to Jephthah, some find it difficult to determine 
exactly what he intended to do. His vow was as follows: "It 
shall be, that whatsoever cometh forth of the doors of my house 
to meet me, when I return in peace from the children of Ammon, 
shall surely be the Lord's, and I will offer it up for a burnt offer- 
ing." God gave him the victory, and when the contest was over, 
he returned to his own home. He thinks now of the vow which he 
had made, and what he shall render to God for all his mercies. So 
he goes on full of hope and cheer. He looks toward his own home, 
and is surprised to see his only daughter, who no doubt has heard 
of his magnificent victory but knew nothing of his rash vow, 
coming forth with a band of maidens to express with music and 
dances their congratulations. At once he realizes the solemnity 
of the situation, and his heart is sad. It is his only child. "When 
he saw her, he rent his clothes, and said, Alas, my daughter! thou 
hast brought me very low, and thou art one of them that trouble 
me : for I have opened my mouth unto the Lord and I cannot go 
back." What does it all mean? 

The common impression is that this vow was intended to mean 
that he would sacrifice whatever he met, and he met his daughter 
and, sad as it was, has sacrificed her by taking her life in the ful- 
fillment of his vow. This vow may have been an improper one, 
and yet he may not have been aware of this in making it. He was 
born in a degenerate period of the Jewish nation, lived away from 
the temple and near idolatrous tribes with whose heathen practices 
he would be more or less familiar. In a foreign land, associated 
with outlaws who lived by plunder, it would not be strange if, 
previous to his appointment as leader of the Jewish hosts, he did 
sink into a kind of semi-paganism. May he not, in this condition, 
have thought he could propitiate Jehovah by such an offering as 
the heathen worshipers used, especially if we remember that he 
may have known something of Abraham's intended sacrifice of 



168 Women of the Bible 

Isaac? With this little amount of teaching, under the promptings 
of a blind zeal, on the eve of an important campaign, might he not 
be induced to show his gratitude by some special offering? As 
another puts it, "He knew there was such a thing as a person's 
being devoted without redemption to God. Possessing then this 
very partial degree of light, and actuated by an intense solicitude 
as to the result of the engagement, he seems to have rushed 
precipitately into the assumption of a vow which proved a fearful 



snare.' 



The feelings which he manifested when he saw his daughter, 
go to show that, when his vow was first made, he intended 
it should mean whatever came forth from his house, if it should 
be his own child. He came back from the battlefield elated at his 
victory, but, at the sight of his own child, ne is suddenly stricken 
down with grief. He evidently felt that, by the nature of the oath 
which he had taken upon himself, he must give her life a sacrifice. 
The anguish which he is now experiencing cannot arise from the 
fact that she will remain forever unmarried, but that she must be 
a victim to a mistaken vow. Without intending it, she has become 
one of his troubles, changing his great joy into unspeakable dis- 
tress. His vow has been made, and there does not seem to be any 
earthly power that can relieve him from its obligations. 

We do not know how nor when the daughter became aware 
o.f the nature of the vow. It might have been inferred from the 
extreme distress which he manifested, or he may have related the 
matter more fully to her. Her conduct manifests a wonderful 
example of piety, of filial obligation, and a zeal for the honor of 
God beyond estimate. "So rejoiced was she at the victory as 
redounding to the good of her country, that she is willing to be 
herself offered up as a thank offering for it, and thinks her life 
well bestowed when laid down for such a purpose. True indeed 
it is that, if her father's conduct was wrong in making the vow, 
hers, when viewed intrinsically in itself, could not be right in 
concurring in it. The same moral character would attach itself 
to both ; but it seems vain to expect that her knowledge in such 
a matter would go beyond that of her father. How can it be sup- 
posed that a youthful maiden should have had clear views of die 
import of the divine law on such a subject, when her father's mind 
was enveloped in darkness? Her genuine self-clevotedness, there- 



hphthah's Daughter — the Devoted One 169 

fore, is still entitled to our highest commendation. Her involun- 
tary ignorance excuses her infirmity, and if she believed when she 
uttered those words that she was to be put to death, neither Greece 
nor Rome, with all their heroes and heroines, can furnish an in- 
stance of sublimer self-sacrifice than that of this humble maid of 
Israel. Had it occurred among these boasting people, instead 
of the plain, unvarnished tale of the sacred historian, we should 
have had it pressed on our admiration with all the pomp of elo- 
quence." 

She requests her father to allow her to go away for two months 
with her companions and prepare herself for her part in the ful- 
fillment of this vow, but how this was done is difficult to ascertain. 
Surely it cannot mean that, for this period of time, she with others, 
a company of unprotected maidens, were spending the time roving 
over hill and dale in the open air with no certain means of food or 
shelter. There is no similar reference anywhere else in the scrip- 
ture that would help to throw light on this passage. One eminent 
commentator makes the following conjecture: "We think the 
inference fair that children, both sons and daughters, were occa- 
sionally dedicated by Jewish parents to the perpetual service of 
God at the tabernacle or temple. When this was the case with 
youthful females, it is probable the custom obtained of their retir- 
ing for a season in groups from domestic scenes to sequestered 
places, in token of regret at being thereby denied the privilege of a 
place among the ancestors of the future generations of Israel and 
perhaps of the Messiah. In so doing, they probably withdrew to 
some retired place of abode, remote from populous villages, where 
under the care of pious matrons they passed the allotted time in 
the observance of such rites and ceremonies as were appointed 
for the purpose, occasionally, perhaps, walking abroad in solemn 
and mournful processions. These persons left their own homes 
as we learn from verse thirty-seven, and hence must have removed 
to some kind of habitation. What could these have been but a 
species of abode designed for the purpose ? Is it not very probable 
that Jephthah's daughter, on an occasion like the present with her 
impending fate full before her, should have been desirous to avail 
herself of a usage originally indeed designed for another purpose 
but not inappropriate to this, and so have requested a respite of a 
few weeks from the doom that awaited her ? What more fitting 



-170 Women of the Bible 

employment during that dread interval than to mingle her regrets 
with those whose lot, her own, in one respect, so much resembled, 
though they were exempted from the distress to which she had 
meekly submitted ?" 

Whether she was really offered in sacrifice by the taking of 
her life, or whether she simply lived a virgin life and thus relin- 
quished her chance to become one of the ancestors of the Messiah, 
has long been a question with commentators, and it is probable it 
will not be absolutely settled. There are a good many reasons for 
either view. Those "who assume that the most natural interpreta- 
tion would lead us to conclude that she was actually put to death, 
support their view by the following statements : To live unmarried 
was not required by any law or custom among the Jews, and no 
one had a right to impose such a condition on another. Human 
sacrifices were deemed meritorious and propitiatory by the neigh- 
boring nations. Jephthah, by his association with these, had be- 
come affected by these notions. This was the most costly offering 
which he could give, and would therefore be the most meritorious. 
What else could he expect than a human being to come forth out 
of the door of his house to meet him? His affliction when his 
daughter met him shows that he had not even exempted her from 
the sacredness of his promise. "He did with her according to 
his vow," meaning in plain words that he offered her for a burnt 
offering'. The daughters of Israel lament her four 4ays every 
year, and people lament the dead, not the living. This view of the 
case is consistent and plain, but the whole thing becomes perplexed 
and difficult as soon as we turn aside from this obvious meaning 
in search of some other explanation, and some of them go so far 
as to assert that the change from the home of Eleazar to that of 
Ithamar was caused by the high priest of this period having suf- 
fered this transaction to take place. It is true that human sacri- 
fices were forbidden by the law, but in the ruder period of the 
judges, the Israelites adopted a number of erroneous notions from 
their heathen neighbors, and other things were done by good men 

which the law forbade. 

Says Kitto: "In full recollection of all the ingenious explan- 
ations which have been produced, I see no alternative but to con- 
clude, although we would gladly avail ourselves of any fair ground 
of escape from that conclusion, that he offered her up as sacrifice. 



Jephthah's Daughter — the Devoted One 171 

This is the sense conveyed by the ancient versions and by the text 
of our own. It is also the statement of Josephus, though he is 
prone to extenuate or suppress that which he holds to be not for 
the honor of his nation, while at the same time he considers it a 
deplorably mistaken and unlawful act. We may sympathize in 
the work of vindicating the memory of one of the heroes of Scrip- 
ture history from such gross ignorance resulting in so foul a 
crime ; but still we feel bound to take the narrative in its plain, 
simple meaning, which is that taken at the first view and apart 
from any note and comment by any reader of the original narra- 
tive as well as by that very correct translation of it which our own 
version implies. The awful sacrifice was doubtless made on some 
one of the old altars, or perhaps on a new one in Gilead. But we 
can pursue the consequences of the case no farther, being most 
glad to draw a veil over the possible circumstances of that last 
scene when perhaps the father's own hand struck down the life 
that was dearer to him than his own." 

Those who accept the other interpretation, that she lived an 
unmarried life, assert, among other reasons in favor of their 
opinion, that verse thirty-one may be rendered: "Whatsoever 
cometh forth out of the doors of my house . . . shall surely 
be the Lord's, and I will offer (to) him (the Lord) a burnt offer- 
ing." This implies two things: first, whatsoever person or object 
should come out of his door to meet him should be dedicated for- 
ever to the Lord's service; in addition to this, he would offer to 
Jehovah a burnt offering. The common version implies that these 
implied the one and the same object. This rendering provides for 
different objects. Bishop Lowth was so pleased with this sug- 
gestion that he said it had "perfectly cleared up a difficulty which 
for two thousand years had puzzled all the translators and expos- 
itors, had given occasion to dissertations without number, and 
caused endless disputes among the learned." The record says of 
the father, "He did with her according to his vow and 

-she knew no man." This may mean, not that he actually put her 
to death, but he did what was equivalent to his vow, that which 
was accepted in lieu of it. Is it not possible that, during those 
two months of respite which she had asked and received, that he 
had learned how the vow could be honorably and faithfully met on 



172 Women of the Bible 

his part without its literal fulfillment, which would have compelled 
the murder of his daughter and involved him in a heinous crime? 

It. does not anywhere state that she was offered up as a burnt 
offering. Do not the very words, "and she knew no man," seem 
to indicate how the vow was carried out, namely by devoting her 
to a life of celibacy? If not, what is the purport and intent of 
this expression? If really put to death, why no mention of it? 
If only doomed to a state of virginity, then the reason for this 
statement is perfectly cleaf. It is true, parents had no legal right 
to devote their children to perpetual virginity, but they had as 
much right as in the case of death. If a man married, he could 
still serve God in such a manner as might be agreeable to himself. 
A married woman would not have so much freedom; "it was 
therefore necessary that she should remain unmarried and that she 
should also be excluded in a great measure from society itself, 
that being the way in which the object of entire consecration 
could be most effectively attained. Moreover, such a sentence 
would come the nearest of any to the letter of his vow. She would 
henceforth be dead to the world in her perpetual celibacy, the 
line of her posterity become extinct forever. It would therefore 
amount almost to a positive annihilation of her." 

By whose hands could such a sacrifice be offered? Human 
sacrifices were among the abominations for which the idolatrous 
nations of Canaan were devoted to destruction. The Israelites 
were expressly forbidden to act like them in sacrificing their sons 
and daughters by fire. That he should have put her to death him- 
self in fulfillment of his own rash vow, would not only have horri- 
fied her but all others concerned. By the law, he could not offer 
any victim as a burnt sacrifice except where the Lord had chosen 
to place his name, namely at Shiloh where the tabernacle was. 
None but a Levite could kill, and none but a priest could offer any 
victim. None but a male victim could be presented in sacrifice iri 
any case. If Jephthah had been a gross idolator, he could, of 
course, have offered his daughter in any of the high places to a 
false god, but he was made the deliverer of his people because 
not such an idolator. His whole conduct is commended by an 
inspired apostle as an act of faith in the true God. The tabernacle 
was at Shiloh in the tribe of Ephraim, and soon after the war with 
Amnion, he was engaged in a battle with the Ephraimites. It is 



Jephthah's Daughter — the Devoted One 173 

not at all likely that, in the heat of this quarrel, he would have 
gone into the heart of that tribe to have offered a sacrifice, even if 
it had been lawful, and much less so when it was forbidden. Even 
with the ignorance and degeneracy which prevailed in that day, it 
is not at all likely that the high priest or any other member of the 
priesthood would have* officiated at such a sacrifice or have toler- 
ated it for a moment in the face of the explicit prohibitions that 
Moses had given. If not, therefore, made by the high priest or 
any inferior priest, if not made by Jephthah himself, which would' 
have been very objectionable, if not made at Shiloh, the appointed 
place for all sacrifices, is it not likely it was not made at all ? 

Is it not very probable and much more in keeping with truth 
and justice, to believe that, while Jephthah originally in the making 
of his vow probably included whatever would come from his 
house, that after two months of reflection, during which time he 
learned more of the Mosaic statutes, he learned that he had done 
a very wicked thing in devoting his child to death, that he could 
keep the spirit of the vow and not be guilty of the crime of mur- 
der, that in case of persons, an offering could be made in their 
stead? While therefore he humbled himself before God and paid 
the ransom that delivered his child from death, he fulfills his 
vow "in her excision from among the living. He therefore con- 
signed her to a state of perpetual seclusion and celibacy— of living 
consecration to God— and in this manner did unto her his vow, 
though in a mode of execution which did not, in the first instance^ 
even enter into his thoughts." 

Classic mythology contains an interesting story of Iphigenia 
who in later years f6rmed the subject of one of Schiller's most 
interesting plays. The story occurs at the beginning of the Trojan 
War. Agamemnon having accidentally killed a stag which was 
sacred to Artemis, the offended goddess" delayed his fleet. Nothing 
would appease her but the sacrifice of Iphigenia, Agamemnon's 
favorite daughter. Rather than do this, he agreed to give up his 
share in the expedition. A council of war was held, and it was 
decided that his own private feelings must yield to the good of 
the State. The daughter was sent for, and the mother sent her 
with the understanding she was to become the wife of Achilles. 
When the maiden arrived and learned her fate, she threw herself 
at her father's feet and with sobs and tears entreated him to 



174 Women of the Bible 

have mercy on her and spare her young life. The broken-hearted 
father was powerless to prevent it. She was bound to the altar, 
and as the knife was raised, she suddenly disappeared and a beau- 
tiful deer lay in her place ready to be sacrificed. Artemis herself 
had caused her to be taken away to Taurica, where she became 
one of her priestesses and was entrusted with the charge of her 
temple. This, however, necessitated the offering of human sacri- 
fices presented to Artemis. She had long given up hope of ever 
v seeing her friends again, when one day two youths were arrested 
and brought to the temple to be sacrificed. She accidentally 
learned that one of these was her brother and the othenher cousin. 
Aided by them, she escaped from the country where she had 
spent so many unhappy days and witnessed so many scenes of 
horror and anguish. 

Whatever theory we may adopt as to the final disposition of 
Jephthah's daughter, she commands our warmest admiration. If 
it meant a life of celibacy, this was no little sacrifice to a Jewish 
maiden. To be married and rear children was the expectation, 
yea, the longing desire, of every daughter of Israel. Barrenness 
was one of the heaviest punishments with which the Lord could 
visit any woman. The reproach which was attached to sterility 
may, in part, be accounted for by the constant expectation of the 
Messiah and the hope that every woman cherished that she might 
be the mother of the promised seed. When the people obeyed God, 
"they should be blessed above all people; there shall not be any 
male or female barren among you or among your cattle." The 
more children a person had among the Hebrews, the more he was 
honored, it being considered a mark of divine favor. Because 
she was barren, Sarah was despised by her slave. Rachel prayed, 
"Give me children, or I die." To thus cut herself off from all 
human alliances, to sacrifice the desire of every Jewish maiden's 
heart, to forego positions of honor and esteem among her own 
sex, to subject herself to the scorn and contempt which her posi- 
tion would naturally invite, was no small burden. And all this 
to be endured, not because of any wrong on her part, but because 
of her father's vow and to encourage him in his loyalty to God. 

If we accept the more radical interpretation, that her life is 
sacrificed, our admiration for the woman is greatly increased. Her 
father makes a vow which should not have been made, in which 



Jephthah's Daughter — the Devoted One 175 

is the violation of the Mosaic law. Because of the victory which 
he had perched upon his banner as a token of the acceptance of 
his vow, he feels bound in all honor to keep it, if it involves his 
child's life. The child recognizes this feeling on the part of her 
father. She had nothing to do in the making of this vow, she 
cannot be required to keep it; but she dearly loves that father. 
With him, she may feel that by failing to keep his vow he would 
be dishonored. She had possibly endured privations that he might 
go to war. She was anxious that he should avenge his wounded 
honor. She had heard of his wonderful success, and elated at his 
victories, she had gone out with her associates to welcome him 
with timbrels and dances. Unconsciously she had brought him 
into this strange condition. When she realizes that victory has 
been given and her country delivered from a curse, and her father 
promoted to authority in the nation all because of this vow, she 
yields her own love of life for love of duty, just as every soldier 
does who sacrifices himself for the sake of his country, and says 
to her father, "Do to me according to that which hath proceeded 
out of thy mouth, forasmuch as the Lord hath taken vengeance 
for thee upon thine enemies, even upon the children of Ammon." 

"They never fail who* die 
In a great cause; the block may soak their gore, 
Their heads may sodden in the sun, their limbs 
Be strung to city gates and castle walls — 
But still their spirits walk abroad. Though years 
Elapse and others share as dark a doom, 
They but augment the deep and sweeping thoughts 
Which o'erpower all others and conduct 
The world at last to freedom. What were we 
If Brutus had not lived? He died in giving 
Rome liberty, but left a deathless lesson — 
A name which is a virtue and a soul 
Which multiplies itself throughout all time, 
When wicked man wax mighty, and a state 
Turns servile ; he and his high friend were styled 
The Last of Romans.' " 

— Byron. 



2Beltlafj===tf)e g>ebuctfoe 



"Delilah! Not the frail sinner falling through too much love; not the 
weak, down-trodden woman the prev of man's superior force; but the 
terrible creature, artful and powerful, who triumphs over man, and uses 
man's passions for her ends, without an answering throb of passion. As 
the strength of Samson lies in his hair, so the strength of Delilah lies in 
her hardness of heart. If she could love, her power would depart from 
her. Love brings weakness, and tears that make the hand tremble and the 
eye dim. But she who cannot love is guarded at all points; her hand 
never trembles, and no soft, fond weakness dims her eye so that she cannot 
see the exact spot where to strike Delilah has her wants— she wants 
money, she wants power, and men are her instruments ; she will make them 
her slaves to do her pleasure." -Harriet Beecher Stowe. 






ffielilaj)— tfje g>ebucttoe 



LIFE is a picture of contrasts, a panorama of visible scenes 
and shades of character, dissimilar ever, though perpetually 
changing. "In the market place the incarnate fiend jostles 
the humble saint ; the haughty rich man passes with scorn the un- 
offending poor; the vile walk unblushingly by the side of the vir- 
tuous, glorying over innocence and beauty blasted forever; and 
the weak cower before the proud grasp of the strong. In the 
forum the unworthy judge gives sentence on the less guilty crim- 
inal, and the citizen of unstained integrity sits on the same jurors' 
bench with the undetected villain." The Bible gives us pictures 
of faithful women, true to their sex and their God, who have been 
angelic ministers to their race and have, by teaching and by ex- 
ample, inspired mankind with a more heroic faith and lifted them 
to a closer companionship with all that was pure and good But 
it would not be true to life if it did not at the same time show 
how a bad woman could drag down others to her same level. The 
people among whom the Jews were now located seem to have been, 
dreadfully corrupt, and with this corruption women had no little 
to do. "Incurable licentiousness and unnatural vice had destroyed 
the family state, transformed religious services into orgies of lust 
and made woman a corrupter instead of a savior. The idolatrous 
temples and groves and high places against which the prophets 
continually thunder, were scenes of abominable vice and demor- 
alizations." 

^ The history of Samson and his sad fall by the wiles of Delilah 
is a warning against the degeneracy of his times and a beacon 
light for all ages. Its teachings are so plain that no one can mis- 
understand. He lived in the dark ages, so to speak, of the Jewish 
nation and could have been of much more service to them He 
did not honor his nation as did Gideon and Jephthah. His' won- 
derful birth would tend to awaken expectation of great things and 
had the physical been kept in subjection to the moral, these miriit 
have been realized. But his vices and indiscretions not only un- 



IgO Women of the Bible 

fitted him for leadership, but tended to produce distrust on the 
part of the people. They could not be blamed for withholding 
their confidence from one who could not control himself. "A mere 
slave of the senses like him, who could repeatedly sacrifice or en- 
danger the most important interests to a woman's sigh, was not 
one into whose hands the elders and warriors of Israel could 
intrust their lives and fortunes. Had he wrought out the possi- 
bilities of his destiny, and had his character been equal to his 
gifts, there is no knowing to what greatness he might not have 
attained; but as it is, he left a name which is at once a miracle 
and a byword, a glorv and a shame." 

There was a man,' named Manoah, who resided in the town of 
Zorah on the confines of Judea and Dan. His wife had been 
barren and had given up all hope of having any children. One 
day a messenger visited her, and, from the record, we infer she 
took him to be a prophet. 

"Appeared before mine eyes 
A man of God : his habit and his guise 
Were such as holy prophets used to wear; 
But in his dreadful looks there did appear 
Something that made me tremble; in his eye 
Mildness was mixt with awful majesty.' 

— Quarles. 

The wife reported the visit to her husband as follows : "A 
man of God came unto me, and his countenance was like the 
countenance of an angel of God, very terrible : but I asked him 
not whence he was, neither told he me his name." He foretold 
to her the birth of a son and that he was to be a Nazante from 
his birth. This was a class of men who were consecrated to God's 
service, which thev manifested by certain acts of self-denial. 
They were not to touch wine or strong drink or any dead body, 
and the hair was not to be cut. Parties could voluntarily assume 
this vow, it could be imposed by parents, and, in the case of 
Samson as well as that of John the Baptist, it was imposed before 
birth by divine appointment. 

Although the husband had not seen this messenger and only 
knew of his message through the wife, he believed the promise. 
He was not sure but his wife might have misapprehended a part 
of the message, and he was anxious the messenger should appear 



Delilah — The Seductive 181 

again and instruct them how to properly care for this child. His 
wish was granted. When he was absent in the field, the messenger 
came again to his wife. She ran for her husband, and whence 
appeared the instructions already given were repeated. The hus- 
band proffered the usual hospitality to the stranger. The kid 
offered to him was presented as a burnt offering to the Lord. 
When this was clone, the messenger disappeared in the flame and 
smoke of the offering, and then they knew he was "the aneel of 
the Lord." • S 

Of Samson's early life we scarcely known anything. The 
brief record given us in the Book of Judges is that "the child grew 
and the Lord blessed him." Remembering that he was set apart 
from his birth to deliver Israel from the Philistines, to whom 
they^ were in bondage, we may understand the Lord gave some 
public proof that this child was under his special protection. He 
was no doubt endowing him in some way for the work he had to 
do. It would have been interesting to have known something of 
his early childhood, how this Nazarite bov with uncut hair and 
great physical strength conducted himself' among his associates. 
Even in our own times when we have learned to appreciate moral 
and spiritual strength more than ever before, the mass of people 
like to look upon one of great physical prowess. We are very 
sure this boy would enjoy the respect and reverence which his 
less favored companions would pay to one who was born to some 
mighty achievement, and that during these early years he did not 
forget the commission which had been put into his hands. 

On his way to Timnath, a frontier town on the borders of the 
Philistian country, he saw a woman of the Philistines who pleased 
him well, or as some would interpret it, was well adapted to the 
end which he had in view. In addition to the fact that he had a 
genuine affection for her, she may also be used for another end, 
namely, the delivering of his country from the hands of the op- 
pressor. This may account for the fact that the attachments 
which he formed were with the Philistines and not with the women 
of his own nation. No one from his own people seems at any 
time to have enlisted his affections. This first attachment was 
especially objectionable to his parents. The law was against 
marrying into heathen and idolatrous nations, although this people 
was not one of those from whom they were absolutely prohibited. 



182 Women of the Bible 

The parents did demur on this general ground, believing it best 
for him, as for ail others of the nation, to find a wife among his 
own people, but at his earliest solicitation they did consent to go 
down and make the necessary arrangements for him. They did 
not at first know what ulterior end he had in view. He may have 
frankly told them, and by means of this they may have been led 
to conclude that he was moved by God's spirit in this matter, and 
under the circumstances it were not best to resist. So they went 
along with him, according to the custom of the times, to make 
proposals to the parents of the young woman and, if satisfactory 
to them, to arrange for the marriage. If all were agreeable, they 
would then be betrothed, and some months, usually not less than 
a year, would elapse before their marriage. 

Samson seems to be planning for the deliverance of his people, 
and this may in part justify his present course. "God's purpose 
in raising up Samson as a deliverer, seems to have been to baffle 
the power of the whole Philistine nation by the prowess of a single 
individual. The champion of Israel, therefore, was not appointed 
so much to be the leader of an army, like the other judges, as to 
be an army in himself. In order that the contest might be carried 
on in this way, it was necessary that the entire opposition of the 
Philistines should be concentrated, as far as possible, against the 
person of Samson. This would array the contending parties pre- 
cisely in such an attitude as to illustrate most signally the power 
of God in the overthrow of his enemies." 

On his way with his parents to Timnath, where his expected 
bride lived, a lion was seen, and without any weapons he slew 
him. After an interval of a year or more he went back to con- 
summate the marriage. This was the custom then as it is to some 
extent with Eastern nations to-day. The woman remained with 
her people and there was but little intercourse between her future 
husband and herself. The ancient*nations knew little of the term 
"courtship" as we understand it to-day. A wedding feast was pro- 
vided for, which usually lasted about seven days, and this was an 
occasion of merriment and general festivity. The sexes did not 
feast together, but the bride and bridegroom gave their entertain- 
ments to their friends in different houses. As Samson did not 
reside here, the entertainment on his part would need to be given 
at the house of some friend, perhaps the one who is called the 



Delilah — The Seductive - 183 

friend of the bridegroom, whose business it was to be a medium 
of communication between the bride and bridegroom, and who 
did what he could to add to the interest and enjoyment of the 
occasion. Thirty persons were present from the community, pro- 
fessedly to honor a man of such fine bearing and commanding 
presence, but more than likely to keep a watch upon his move- 
ments. As it was the custom in those days to propound riddles, 
puzzles, and various perplexing questions for amusement and pas- 
time during the seven days of the feast, Samson propounded one, 
which if they solved, he would pay them "thirty sheets [shirts] 
and thirty changes of garments." If they failed, they were to 
pay him the same forfeit. They could not answer, and in their 
perplexity, they threatened the life of the wife and of her father's 
family. She urgently solicited her husband during these seven 
days, and he finally yielded to her solicitations and told her the 
answer. He was indignant at the treatment received, and slew 
thirty of the Philistines, most likely persons of rank and not the 
lowest of the people, and secured garments with which to pay the 
forfeit. Provoked at his wife's inconstancy and with the treachery 
of these professed friends, he temporarily leaves her with her 
father and returns to his own home. 

The result of this event was to him, no doubt, very unexpected. 
While he was absent the wife's parents seemed to have become 
dissatisfied with their new son-in-law, believing that his relation 
to them boded no good, and so gave her to the man who had taken 
the place as the friend of the bridegroom. His relation to the 
woman during the marriage festivities gave him a chance for 
forming her acquaintance, and the treachery of one who had been 
so specially trusted, must have wounded Samson not a little 
After some time he sought his wife again, but her father refused 
him the privilege of meeting her; and he now determines to be 
avenged for this insult to himself and his nation. He does this in 
a peculiar way. He secures a number of jackals, ties firebrands 
to their tails, and then sends them out into the green fields of the 
Philistines, with the result that their shocks of corn were con- 
sumed. They were so enraged on learning who had done this 
that they burned the house, and the father and daughter both per- 
ished. The very means which the wife had taken to save her life 
and that of her father, indirectly brought about this disastrous 



134 Women of the Bible 

result. All this was only fresh provocation to Samson for the 
manner in which he had been treated, and falling upon them 
without ceremony, he smote them with great slaughter. 

He no doubt expected the Philistines to resent this, so he 
dwelt in "the top of the rock Etam." This was a natural fortress 
affording advantages for defense which he would possibly soon 
need. He most likely designed no further annoyance to the Philis- 
tines, unless provoked by new aggressions on their part. This 
place was located in the tribe of Judah. The Philistines soon 
appear with a body of men, intending perhaps to intimidate the 
tribe and then use them in capturing Samson. The men of Judea 
acted very strangely in showing a willingness to give up so distin- 
guished a leader. " "But their spirits were broken by the base 
bondage which their iniquities had brought upon them, and instead 
of bravely setting Samson at their head to fight for their liberty, 
they meanly resolve to make a sacrifice of him to his enemies, pre- 
ferring ignominious servitude to a generous struggle for their 
country." He consented to be bound if his own people would not 
fall upon him. He probably consented to this, believing it would 
give him a new occasion for inflicting vengeance upon this oppres- 
sive race. Being brought bound to a place called by anticipation 
Lehi, a jaw, where the Philistines had pitched their camp, a super- 
natural power came upon him, and snapping asunder the cords 
that bound him, he seized the jawbone of an ass and so effectually 
did he use it that a thousand men were slain on the spot. Wearied 
with his exertions and finding no water to quench his parching 
thirst, he prayed for water, and a fountain was opened causing a 
stream to gush from a hollow rock near by. 

This appears to have given a new life to these oppressed people 
of "Judea. For twenty years Samson seems to have been a leader 
and a protector to the people in the southwest part of Palestine. 
His efforts and labors did not entirely crush out, but they did 
weaken and limit the power of his oppressors. When in Gaza, 
he fell in love with a lewd woman and, yielding to her entice- 
ments, he is exposed to imminent peril. His relation to this people 
would hardly allow him to make such a visit openly. His presence 
was soon noised abroad, and his enemies were on the alert to cap- 
ture him. They made fast the gates of the city and stationed 
sentinels at them who should apprehend him as he went out in 



Delilah — The Seductive 185 

the morning. Samson, apprised of what was going on, arose at 
midnight and, breaking away the bolts and bars that held the 
smaller gates, put them upon his shoulders and carried them to the 
top of a neighboring hill that looked towards Hebron. Thus once 
again he escapes out of the hands of his enemies. 

One would have thought that the convictions of conscience 
would have rendered him powerless on such an occasion. His 
life is a mixed one and God may have had good reasons for de- 
ferring the punishment for those sins, which shall not go unpun- 
ished. It was a reprieve rather than a pardon which he received. 
His bad living finally brought its results to him as it does to all. 
This very mercy may have emboldened him a second time to give 
loose rein to his passions. "Customs of success make men confi- 
dent in their sins and cause them to mistake an arbitrary tenure 
for a perpetuity." "He loved a woman in the valley of Sorek, 
whose name was Delilah." Of this location we know nothing. It 
is not expressly stated that this was a lewd woman, but the con- 
nections seem to indicate this. Milton thinks she was a Philistine 
and a legal wife. He makes Samson to say : 

"The first I saw at Timna, and she pleased 
Me, not my parents, that I sought to wed 
The daughter of an infidel ; they knew not 
That what I motioned was of God; I knew 
From intimate impulse, and therefore urged 
The marriage on ; that by occasion hence 

I might begin Israel's deliverance, 
The work to which I was divinely called. 
She proving false, the next I took to wife 
(O, that I never had; fond wish too late) 
Was in the vale of Sorek, Dalila, 
That specious monster, my accomplished snare. 
I thought it lawful from my former act 
And the same end ; still watching to oppress 
Israel's oppressors ; of what- I now suffer 
She was not the prime cause, but I myself 
Who, vanquished with a peal of words, (O weakness,) 
Gave up my fort of silence to a woman." 

Chrysostom and many of the church fathers have maintained 
that she was married to Samson, but this seems like an attempt to 
save the morality of the Jewish champion. Says Professor Bush : 
"She is nowhere called his wife, he. did not take her home to his 
house, and the whole train of her negotiations with her country- 



186 Women of the Bible 

men go to prove that she was a mercenary and perfidious courte- 
san, governed in her conduct towards Samson by interest instead 
of affection, if indeed it be not profaning the term affection to use 
it in connection with such an illicit and degrading intercourse." 

The Philistines knew where Samson's weakness was to be 
found, if they did not know where to find his strength, and so they 
offer money to this woman with whom he is infatuated if she will 
help them to get possession of his person so they may humble him. 
For the price "of eleven hundred pieces of silver," possibly about 
ten thousand dollars of our money, she consents to help them. 
She employs all her arts and blandishment in obtaining from him 
the secret of his prodigious strength. The account as given in the 
Judges is very brief and seems more or less abrupt. "The results 
only are stated — the final purport given without any notice of the 
little artifices of conversation and dalliance, the watching for 
favorable moments, and natural turns of thought and incident 
which disguised the wickedness of the design and gave a seem- 
ingly natural turn to the woman's attempt to get possession of his 
secret — the various attempts on her part to betray the confidence 
she supposed Samson had reposed in her are so related as to 
appear to have followed in rapid and immediate succession; it is 
far more likely that these attempts were made at different visits 
of Samson to the vale of Sorek, when a sufficient interval had 
passed to blunt the keenness of any suspicions that may have 
been awakened in his mind. Simple-minded and confiding as 
Samson was, he was not altogether so silly as an unintelligent 
mode of reading the narrative may make him appear." 

She evidently applied all the arts with which women of her 
trade are familiar, took advantage of his more yielding moods, no 
doubt expressed admiration of his wonderful exploits, and thus 
by throwing him off guard would hope to win his secret from him. 
The siege he withstood before he finally surrendered to this artful 
hypocrite, shows that he had some appreciation of what was be- 
coming to a man in his position. He does not, however, refuse 
with as much dignity as he did his wife at Timnath. He plainly 
refused to tell her, and that secret was of inferior importance to 
this, and yet here he does not give a positive refusal. If he did 
that, no doubt she would continue to annoy him with her solicita- 




o 

to 
in 



< 






Delilah — The Seductive 187 

tions, so he amuses her with one explanation and another- which 
might have satisfied the curiosity of an ordinary woman ; but the 
tests which were immediately tried show that he had not yet 
revealed the genuine secret. 

He tells her to bind him with seven green withes which had 
never been used, and he would be as weak as other men. The 
statement was not true and we shall not undertake to vindicate 
his veracity. The obtuseness of conscience which makes a man 
insensible to the guilt of one species of sin, may also make him 
reckless of another. These were ropes made of vegetable material, 
the tough fibers of trees, pliable twisted rods, oziers, hazels, and 
the like. While these ropes were green, they were very strong. 
They are used to-day in India in binding the legs of wild elephants 
and buffaloes that are newly caught. The faithless woman bound 
him with these, possibly while he slept. She then roused him with 
the words, The Philistines be upoirthee, Samson." It was no 
vain alarm. They were in an adjoining room, and no doubt had 
the withes held him, would have rushed in on some preconcerted 
signal. He sprang up and rent the green withes as if they had 
been but tow. The liers-in-wait in the adjoining chamber did not 
appear, so the dalliance could go on. 

The next time may have been on another occasion when he 
told her that newly twisted or spun ropes that had never been 
used upon any other would hold him. The result in this case was 
the same as before. On the third occasion he approached more 
dangerously near to his great secret. He is tampering with temp- 
tation and in the end will yield. The only safety for any man, for 
the strongest of men, is to avoid the very appearance of evil. , In 
those days there were small looms in which women wove their 
household stuff, and even women of Delilah's character practiced 
this industry. Such a loom may have been in her own room where 
she was accustomed to weave her own clothing. Pictures of 
these looms are shown on Egyptian sculptures, and as they are 
still found in many places are simple and comparatively light and 
not so heavy as the more cumbersome apparatus of our own 
hand-loom weaver. He suggests to her that if his long locks were 
woven in with the web, he would be as other men. The woman 
did this, and to make it more certain, she fastened the web, with 



Igg Women of the Bible 

the hair thus woven into it, with a strong pin or nail to either the 
floor or the wall. When the alarm was given as heretofore, he 
arose and went forth, dragging the frame, the web, and the pin, 
the whole apparatus, after him by his hair. 

At length, worn out by her importunity, "he told her all his 
heart " Alas, alas, that this strong man should so soon become so 
weak' "So perfectly captivated and intoxicated had he become, 
notwithstanding repeated warnings, like the silly dove, without 
heart' he rushed upon his ruin. Had he not been completely 
infatuated, he would have seen before, that no alternative re- 
mained to him but to break away at once and at all hazards from 
the enchantress, and quit the field where it was so evident he could 
not keep his ground. But no charms are stronger than those 
woven by illicit love, and with him who becomes their prisoner, 
reputation, life, usefulness, yea, even God's glory and the salva- 
tion of the soul are put to peril in obedience to its unhallowed 
dictates " Says Bishop Hall : "We wonder that a man could 
possibly be so sottish, and yet we ourselves by temptation become 
no less insensate. Sinful pleasures like a common Delilah lodge 
in our bosoms ; we know they aim at nothing but the death of our 
soul • we will yield to them and die. Every willing sinner is a 
Samson ; let us not inveigh against his senselessness, but our own ; 
nothing is so gross and unreasonable to a well disposed mind 
which temptation will not represent fit and plausible." 

He tells her that he has been a "Nazarite unto God ' from the 
very beginning of his existence. What a confession to be made to 
a woman of lewd character, who, like others of her class, is betray- 
ing for money! It would seem as if the utterance of such a 
statement, betraying such a glaring inconsistency between his pro- 
fession and his conduct, should have awakened him from the spell 
that was upon him and made him break away. To take of! his 
hair would cut him off from that consecrated condition. He would 
then be no stronger than any other man with such muscles as he 
had This wicked woman sees the first opportunity to put him to 
the test She was so sure this time that he had told her the truth, 
that before she makes the test, the lords of the Philistines hurry 
down to her with the money for which she had sold Samson into 



Delilah — The Seductive 189 

their hands. It looks as if they were about to give up the contest, 
but she says, "Come up this once, for he has showed me all his 
heart." 

She causes him to sleep upon her knees and so compliments 
him for his confidence. When fast asleep, a man is introduced 
who skillfully, so as not to awaken him, deprives him of his inval- 
uable locks. His strength thereby passed from him. There was 
no mighty struggle to show what he had lost. He slept on uncon- 
scious that he had become as weak as others. Once more the 
signal is given and the Philistines are upon him in earnest. He 
did not know that the Lord had left him, but he soon realized his 
true condition. 

"Even as a dove whose winps are cleft for flying 
Flutters her idle stumps, and still relying 
Upon her wanted refuge, strives in vain 
To quit her life from danger, and attain 
Ihe freedom of her air-dividing plumes; 
She struggles often, and she oft presumes 
lo take the sanctuary of the open fields; 
But finding that her hopes ?re vain, she yields; 
Even so poor Samson." 

What a change has come over the man! He is on his way to 
the very Gaza whose gates not long since he had triumphantly 
carried off. The arms which yesterday broke in pieces the green 
cords which held the limbs of an elephant, are bound with feebler 
cords which they have not the strength to resist. The man who 
with ajawbone had slain a thousand men and terrified a whole 
army, is now led along by an ignominious escort. His glorious 
locks, the symbol of his strength and covenant with God, are left 
behind, transfixed in the earth, and the head they once covered 
is exposed to the burning rays of an Eastern sun. Before they 
started with him, they put out the light of those eyes, which had 
so often struck terror into their souls. This would help to prevent 
his escape from them, and if he did escape, would cripple his 
activity. Possibly they had no good prison in which to keep him 
and by putting out his eyes and preserving his life they would, by 
these indignities and insults, prolong his sufferings. So the once 
strong Samson, now helpless, bowed down, and blind, enters Gaza. 



190 Women of the Bible 

He was bound with chains that he should not escape. He was 
not simply to be kept as a captive, but was to be treated as a slave. 
He was ,to be a public slave — one of the worst conditions into 
which a man could be brought. He was put to grinding corn in 
the prison house. The millstones were worked by hand, this being 
still the usual method of grinding in the East. This was the work 
performed by females, and was therefore well suited to disgrace 
a man of such strength as Samson had shown. Thus the champion 
and avenger of Israel is now become, through his own folly and 
wickedness, the drudge and the sport of the Philistines. 

"Why was my breeding ordered and prescribed 
As "of a person separate to God, 
Designed for great exploits, if I must die 
Betrayed, captived, and both my eyes put out, 
Made* of my enemies the scorn and gaze, 
To grind in brazen fetters under task 
With this heaven-gifted strength? O glorious strength, 
Put to the labor of the beast, debased 
Lower than bond-slave ! promise was, that I 
Should Israel from Philistian yoke deliver; 
Ask for this great deliverer now, and find him 
Eyeless in Gaza at the mill with slaves, 
Himself in bonds under Philistian yoke. 

. • • • • 

O impotence of mind, in body strong!" 

Whether Delilah visited Samson while in prison or not, the 
inspired record does not state. Milton, who treats her as a wife, 
represents her in his poem as repenting of her course against her 
husband and visiting him in prison to implore his forgiveness. 
When he learns of her presence and purpose, he cries out : 

"Out ; out, hyaena ; these are thy wonted arts, 
And arts of every woman false like thee, 
To break all faith, all vows, deceive, betray, 
Then as repentant to submit, beseech, 
And reconcilement move with feigned remorse, 
Confess, and promise wonders in her change." 

In response to this she urges her weakness and that of her sex, 
saying : 

"Nor shouldst thou have trusted that to woman's frailty ; 
Ere I to thee, thov\ v> thyself was cruel." 



Delilah — The Seductive \g\ 

Samson thus answers : 

"How cunningly the sorceress displays 
Her own transgressions to upbraid me mine; 
' An . T j .. V Weakness is thy excuse/ 

And 1 believe it ; weakness to resist 
Fhihstian gold; if weakness may excuse 
What murderer, what traitor, parricide ' 
Incestuous sacrilegious, but may plead it? 
All wickedness is weakness." 

She denies that it was love of gold that influenced her but 
love of country : ' 



And .princes of m ^Z^£\£^^ 

Solicited, commanded, threatened ur°- e d 
Adjured by all the bonds of civil duty ' 
And of religion, pressed how just it was, 
How honorable, how glorious, to entrap 
A common enemy, who had destroyed 
Such numbers of our nation ; and the priest 
Was not behind, but ever at my ear 
preaching how meritorious with the'gods 
it would be to ensnare an irreligious 
Dishonor of Dagan ; what had I 
io oppose against such powerful arguments?" 

If he will forgive her, she will intercede for him with her 

"No no ; of my condition take no care ; 

Nor \w°V th ° U and T lon S since are tWain; 
Nor think me so unwary or accursed 

lo bring my feet again into the snare 

Where once I have been caught ■ 

1 know thy trains, 

Tnv!ir d a e nrVV H C ° St ' thy ^ and t°iH 
No^ore on d m C e h r v e e d po^ "***« ^™ 

seas^ V7^f^f " m ° re deaf t0 pn ^ s tha " ™^ and 
seas If he w.ll not forg,ve her, she will at least have the con- 

ST-S^ heM ^ « — * P-Hty, as aW 



9 

192 Women of the Bible 

"My name perhaps among the circumcised 
In Dan, in Juda, and the bordering tribes, 
To all posterity may stand defamed, 
With malediction mentioned, and the blot 
Of falsehood most unconjugal traduced; 
But in my country where I most desire, 
In Eeron, Gaza, then Ashdod, and in Gath, 
I shall be named among the famousest 
Of women, sung at solemn festivals, 
Living and dead recorded, who, to save 
Her country from a fierce destroyer, chose 
Above the faith of wedlock bands ; my tomb 
With odors visited and annual flowers; 
Not less renowned than in Mount Ephraim 
Jael, who with inhospitable guile, 
Smote Sisera sleeping, through the temples nailed. 

In his captivity his hair began to grow again as might be ex- 
pected. This implies that his "strength came with it and came, no 
doubt, as a result of his repentance. The loss of his hair deprived 
him of strength simply because it took him out of the condition 
of a Nazarite with which his strength was connected. It was not 
because his hair grew, but because of his repentance that God was 
willing to accept the renewal of his vow and reinvest him with the 
powers which before he had lost." Says Bishop Hail : "His hair 
grew together with his repentance and his strength with his hair. 

. . It is better for Samson to be blind in prison than to abuse 
his eyes in Sorek ; yea, I may safely say he was more blind when 
he saw licentiously than now when he sees not ; he was a greater 
slave when he served his affections than now in grinding for the 
Philistines. The loss of his eyes shows him his sin, neither could 
he see how ill he had done till he saw not." 

After months had passed away, giving Samson's hair time to 
grow, the Philistines proposed a feast to Dagon, their god, in the 
belief that he had delivered Samson, their great enemy, into their 
hands. They came from all parts on this remarkable occasion, and 
the importance which they attached to the fact that he was their 
prisoner, is shown in the statement that they "praised their god." 
Samson's heart must have smote him when he saw that the Lord 
had been dishonored by his misconduct and that the Philistines 
ascribed their success to their god. Things have taken a strange 
turn. "It was no longer a matter between Samson and the Philis- 
tines, but between Dagon and Jehovah." While there was much 



Delilah— The Seductive 19 3 

feasting and merriment in connection with this thanWivmc . 
sion, some one said, "Call for Samson » ThT , , ? g ° CCa " 

their sport was soon ended g ancients. But 

the lord, nfti^P-r • the hl § hest so cial rank, for "all 

me lords oi the Philistines were there" snri ,'t, ^aau- V 
about thre^ th^.^A , ' a d m addl tion thereto 

duout rnree thousand men and women were present N* h™k+ 

in favor of « H ' y g f b '° W agai " St Da ^ on and 

gotten in his 7 ea fl; tl VT 1^°^ s » fferi '^ were now for- 
ced tHe G ° d Wh0m he had so shamefully dishon- 

"Happen what may, of me expect to hear 
Nothmg d,shonorable, impur^Lworthy 

ThI u, , ' ?"'' law ' my nation > or myself- 
The last of me or no, f cannot warrant" 

"RifS h th^ f • him ', the P ? ople with a shout 
vH u h e air J d amounng their god with nraise 

He n^ d ? l dG *"? dreadful ^emy heir th all 
He, patient, but undaunted, where thev led hi™ 

A, T l\ r "? '? ap P ear antagonist ' 
At length for intermission sake thev lerl h; m 
Between the pillars; he his guide requested 
(For so from such as nearer stood we heard ^ 
WitTwI^r t° ^t him lean awhile heard) 

Sto*e hl arSro O r h0Se tw °.™-- »to* 

And eves fast fi i v. head J awhi| e inclined, 

Or some g r ea t ma tt er e in° h 0d ' aS T W *° P™** 
At Ipcr LSu? , tter m his mind revo ved- 
At last with head erect thus cried aloud: 



194 Women of the Bible 

'Hitherto, lords, what your command^ imposed 

I have performed, as reason was, obeying, 

Not without wonder or delight beheld; 

Now of mine own accord such other trial 

I mean to show you of my strength, yet greater 

As with amaze shall strike all who behold.' 

This uttered, straining all his nerves he bowed ; 

As with the force of winds and waters pent, 

When mountains tremble, those two massive pillars ( 

With horrible convulsion to enthrow 

He tugged, he shook, till down they came, and drew 

The whole roof after them, with burst of thunder 

Upon the heads of all who sat beneath, 

Lords, ladies, captains, counselors, or priests, 

Their choice nobility and flower, not only 

Of this, but each Philistian city 'round, 

Met from all parts to solemnize this feast. 

Samson, with these inmix'd, inevitably < 

Pulled down the same destruction onhimself ; 

The vulgar only 'scaped who stood without." 

t 

He was willing to die with the Philistines if thereby his God 
should be honored. The sacred historian tells us, 'The dead he 
slew at his death were more than they which he slew in his life." 
His body was selected from the heaps of the slain, brought to his 
own country, and interred in the sepulcher of his fathers. The 
catastrophe 'was so overwhelming that no attempt was made to 
hinder Samson's relations from taking away his dead body. Mil- 
ton makes his father, when he hears of the manner of his death, 
speak as follows : 

"Nothing is here for tears, nothing to wail 
Or knock the breast ; no weakness, no contempt, 
Dispraise, or blame ; nothing but well and fair, 
And what may quiet us in a death so noble. 
Let us go find the body where it lies 
Soaked in his enemies' blood ; and from the stream 
With lavers pure and cleansing herbs, wash off 
The clotted gore. I, with what speed the while, 
(Gaza is not in plight to say us nay) _ 
Will send for all my kindred, all my friends, 
To fetch him hence, and solemnly attend 
With silent obsequy and funeral train 
Home to his father's house; there will I build him 
A monument, and plant it 'round with shade 
Of laurel ever green and branching palm 
With all his trophies hung, and acts enrolled 
In copious legend or sweet lyric song." 



Delilah — The Seductive 195 

'Whether Delilah was in the mighty structure when Samson 
was the sport of his captors, we cannot tell. She may have stood 
sad and silent with remorse and remembered kindnesses she would 
share no more; while leaning mournfully between the massive 
pillars which he grasped with extended arms, he bowed his sight- 
less head and prayed for the return of his forfeited power, that he 
might avenge his own and the enemies of God. It is in accordance 
with God's retributive justice on former occasions to believe she 
was there; and when, in answer to that piteous cry of a penitent 
spirit, the tall columns reeled before his recovered strength, like 
interlocking masts in a wrathful deep, and the walls heaved and 
fell in with a descending roof, hers was the first shriek that went 
up from that vast tomb of living throngs, whose music and mirth 
were drowned in a wail of agony and groans of the death 
struggle." 

"Samson, victorious, all powerful, carrying the gates of Gaza 
on his back, the hope of his countrymen and the terror of his 
enemies ; and Samson, shorn, degraded, bound, eyeless, grinding in 
the prison-bouse of those he might have subdued— such was the 
lesson given to the Jews of the power of the evil woman. And the 
story which has repeated itself from age to age, is repeating itself 
to-day. There are women on whose knees men sleep, to awaken 
shorn of manliness, to be seized, bound, blinded, and made to 
grind in unmanly servitude forever.-' 

' She hath cast down many wounded, 
Yea, many strong men hath she slain ; 
Her house is the way to hell, 
Going down to the chambers of death." 



ftfje Wtdf) of €nbor- 
an Ancient g>ptritualtet 



"And here Saul is, on the night of imminent and terrible destiny to 
himself and his people, ten miles away from his great army, in a den of a 
sorceress asking to be made the dupe of the vilest imposture. He might 
have had Omniscience for his guide and the strength of the Almighty for 
his shield ; and he seeks light from a confederate of the prince of darkness ; 
he craves a more intimate alliance with the powers that have already 
brought him to the very brink of destruction. The hours of the night 
are swiftly passing, and when the dawn appears the hills will shake with 
the battle-cry and the thundering charge of a half million warriors; and 
the consecrated king of Israel, who should rule the destinies of that day 
in the name of Jehovah, is away from the camp wasting his strength and 
unnerving his heart by consulting with this wicked and worthless woman 

at Endor. ' . , , 

"To such dreadful darkness and delusion are even great and strong and 
princely men given up, when they turn away from the only living and true 
God and trust in Iving vanities. If you would meet the great battle of 
life with the courage of heroes and the faith of martyrs, do not ask 
council of those who pretend to be wise above what is written in God s 
revealed Word. Do no turn away from the instructions and admonitions 
of holy men, who spake as thev were moved by the Holy Ghost. Do not 
put yourself under the guidance of men and ? women whose wisdom is ot 
earth and whose inspiration is from beneath." j>-u r '» 

—Vr. Daniel March, m 'Night Scenes m the Bible. 



Ww Wttcf) of enbor— an Ancient g>ptrttualtet 



THE history of Saul, the first king of Israel, from the begin- 
ning to the end, seems like an inspired tragedy. His char- 
acter appears to be made up of the most different qualities. 
"He had the courage of a hero and the timidity of a coward. He 
spared his worst enemy and would have put to death his best 
friend. He prophesied himself, and he destroyed the prophets of 
the Lord. He cut off the diviners and necromancers out of the 
land, and on the last night of his life he traveled ten miles in great 
peril and fatigue and distress of mind to inquire for himself of a 
woman that had a familiar spirit." 

This Saul, who was a man of magnificent presence, had been 
anointed by Samuel as the first king over Israel. He was some- 
what headstrong by nature, and had fallen into one sin after 
another until he had almost made a wreck of himself. The murder 
of the Lord's priests was on his soul. He had spared Amelek 
whom the Lord commanded him to destroy, and because of this 
disobedience the kingdom was not allowed to remain in his family. 
David, who had been anointed to succeed him, was fast growing 
into prominence. The hosts of the Philistines, the ancient foes of 
Israel, were in battle array against him, and he was not in good 
condition to attack them; he was encamped by the spring where 
Gideon's band had hastily drank, and with the three hundred 
thousand men, entrenched on heights that the Philistines could not 
reach, he should have been strong for the battle, but in fact he 
seemed dispirited and defenseless. 

There was a reason for all of this. The tribes on the east had 
renounced all allegiance to him. Even his own Benjamin and the 
strong Judah were growing weary of him. More and more the 
people were turning to David, who by his bravery and skill was 
winning the hearts of all. In other days Saul could inquire of the 
prophet Samuel, but he was now dead and his last words to him 



200 Women of the Bible 

were not very encouraging. "When Saul inquired of the Lord, 
the Lord answered him not, neither by dreams nor by Urim, nor 
the prophets." He was at the head of a magnificent army, but 
after all "he was afraid and his heart greatly trembled." 

"There is no path so dark and desolate for human feet to tread 
as that chosen by the man who resists and grieves away all holy 
influences from his heart until he feels that God has given him up. 
The worst thing that can ever happen to a willful and disobedient 
man like Saul is for God to let him h-ave his own way. It is the 
darkest hour of life and the beginning of the shadow of death 
to such a man, when he is left to follow the bent of his own blind 
passion and to fall into the pit which his own folly has digged." 

The poor man does not know which way to turn, and the 
result is he turns the wrong way. He says to his servants, "Seek 
me a woman that hath a familiar spirit, that I may go to her, and 
enquire of her. And his servants said to him, Behold, there is a 
woman that hath a familiar spirit at Endor." All such practices 
had been forbidden by the law, and Saul had been very vigilant in 
enforcing the law, so that it was not known that there were any 
wizards or necromancers in the land. How could he, with any 
sort of consistency, consult such a person, and yet if not she, whom 
should he consult? 

And what did he want with this woman? He desired once 
more to communicate with Samuel, to learn if there were not 
some way whereby the divine judgment could be turned aside. 
Samuel had been a judge in Israel for many years. He was also 
a prophet of the Lord and a man above reproach. When the 
people desired a king so they could be like the nations about them, 
Samuel greatly regretted this step, but the Lord authorized him to 
anoint Saul, and while he lived he was present to reprove or re- 
strain Saul as might be necessary. He died at the age of ninety- 
nine years. Before his death he assembled the people, to whom he 
made a farewell address and recounted how faithfully he had tried 
to live among them. The people responded to this address by 
saying, "Thou hast not defrauded us, nor oppressed us, neither 
hast thou taken aught of any man's hand." He was buried at 
Ramah and the people made great lamentation over him. When 
Samuel spake to the king for the last time before his death, he 



The Witch of Endor—an Ancient Spiritualist 201 

said, "Thou hast done foolishly. Thou hast not kept the command- 
ments of the Lord thy God. Thou hast rebelled and rebellion is 
as the sin of witchcraft; therefore, because thou hast rejected the 
word of the Lord, therefore he hath rejected thee." No doubt 
these words are still ringing in the ears of the king and are one of 
the chief sources that trouble him at this time. 

He will make one more effort to see Samuel if possible. It will 
not do for him to appear as the king, for he will be detected and his 
visit will be fruitless. He lays aside his buckler and his spear, and," 
taking off his royal robes, puts on those of common peasants ■ and 
with two men whom he can trust he slips away from his camp, 
lhey pass down the sides of Gilboa and cross Little Hermon 
watching every moment that they may not fall into the hands of 
the enemy. Having traveled ten or more miles, they come to a 
cluster of mud and stone cabins on the north side of Little 
Hermon. In one of the caverns under this mountain they find a 
solitary hag, who during these times of trouble, when Saul was 
scouring the land for witches, had hidden herself away that she 
might, with greater security and for the sake of illgotten sain 
practice her imposture of divination. 

In due time after miles of travel, with troubled heart, he finds 
the witch's den. He asks her to bring up whom he shall name to 
her. Possibly his distinguished stature, which could not well be 
disguised and which was known to all Israel, may have disclosed 
him to this woman. She refuses to listen to his proposal, alleging . 
her fear that it may come to the knowledge of the king. Saul 
pledged by oath that no harm should come to her, and as he was a 
stranger, it is not easy to see how this oath would be any protec- 
tion to her except as she believed her visitor to be the king himself 
She made no betrayal of herself, however, but asked whom she 
was to bring up. 

Scarcely had the name of Samuel passed the king's lips before 
to the amazement of the woman, Samuel appeared. With a loud 
shriek as if she saw more than she expected to see, she exclaimed, 
Why hast thou deceived me? for thou art Saul." The king was 
the man who had been vigorously seeking those who had familiar 
spirits, and the woman possibly feared for her life. He was in no 
condition now to continue such a warfare, so he assured her she 



202 Women of the Bible 

should not be hurt and earnestly inquired, "What sawest thou?" 
She answered, "I saw gods ascending out of the earth." It was 
evident that whatever was seen was seen by the woman herself and 
not by Saul, for he inquires, "What form is he of?" The woman 
answered, "An old man cometh up; and he is covered with a 
mantle." "Saul perceived that it was Samuel, and he stooped with 
his face to the ground." Whether he really saw him, or whether 
he supposed it to be Samuel from the woman's description, is a 
disputed question. The following conversation then ensues be- 
tween the spirit and Saul : Samuel— "Why hast thou disquieted 
me to bring me up?" Saul — "I am sore distressed; for the Philis- 
tines make war against me, and God is departed from me, and 
answereth me no more, neither by prophets, nor by dreams: 
therefore I have called thee, that thou mayest make known unto 
me what I shall do." Samuel— "Wherefore then dost thou ask of 
me, seeing the Lord is departed from thee, and is become thine 
enemy ? ... for the Lord hath rent the kingdom out of thine 
hand, and given it to thy neighbor, even to David : because thou 
obeyedst not the voice of the Lord, nor executedst his fierce wrath 
upon Amelek, therefore hath the Lord done this thing unto thee 
this day. Moreover the Lord will also deliver Israel with thee 
into the hands of the Philistines : and to-morrow shalt thou and 
thy sons be with me: the Lord also shall deliver the host of 
Israel into the hand of the Philistines." 

At the close of this dreadful communication, the king fell 
down through physical exhaustion and mental distress, for he had 
"eaten no bread all the day or all the night." He realizes that all 
is lost. At the urgent solicitation of the woman and his servants, 
some nourishment was forced upon him, and he departed ere the 
morning dawned, with sad heart, to meet his coming doom. On 
the following day, the armies meet in deadly combat. Saul's army 
is defeated and the Philistines are victorious. The mountains of 
Gilboa, where the king had his headquarters, are covered with the 
slain. The breeze is laden with the wails of the dying, and the air 
is rent with shouts of the victorious foe. As he beholds his still 
surviving soldiers, he stretches his manly form to its utmost height 
and, according to the conception of the poet, addresses them as 
follows : 



The Witch of Endor—an Ancient Spiritualist 203 

"Away, away, degenerate Hebrews, fly 
From Saul nor see your monarch die; 
The hateful phantom vainly now implored 
Unarmed my spirit and unedged my sword; 
Else fled not Saul before the haughty foe, 
Nor on his back received the Gentile blow; 
Haste, slave, strike, strike, the victor shall not say 
The chief of Israel was a living prey ; 
Strike the sharp weapon through my mangled breast, 
One deep wound more be added to the rest. 
Coward ; this is the day, this is the hour, 
Saul not out-lives his glory and his power." 

When his armor-bearer would not take the life of his .own 
king, Saul drew his own sword and fell upon it, and so he died. 
Encased in royal armor, that magnificent form lay helpless on the 
ground, its owner having taken his own life rather than to fall into 
the hands of his enemies. Over his sad fate David lamented in the 
following eulogy : "How are the mighty fallen ! Tell it not in 
Gath, publish it not in the streets of Askelon ; lest the daughters 
of the Philistines rejoice, lest the daughters of the uncircumcised 
triumph. Ye mountains of Gilboa, let there be no dew, neither let 
there be rain upon you, nor fields of offerings : for there the shield 
of the mighty is vilely cast away, the shield of Saul, as though he 
had not been anointed with oil." 

Some think that our own Shakespeare must have found in this 
story the foundation for his immortal tragedy of Macbeth. They 
infer this from the parallels running between the two accounts. 
"Both the king of Israel and Macbeth arose from low station. 
There was a time when neither of them ever dreamed of royalty. 
Both were men of mark, were warriors, but treacherous and 
cruel. Both were murderers of their own guests : Saul in purpose 
was guilty of the murder of his guest David ; Macbeth in deed, for 
he imbrued his hands in the blood of Duncan. Both were the 
cause of other murders : Saul bade Doeg kill eighty-five priests ; 
Macbeth hired a villain to waylay and slay Banquo. Both hunted 
the innocent and slew them because of jealous revenge: Macbeth 
slew the helpless wife and children of Macduff; Saul hunted like 
a bloodhound Abiather for favoring David. Both sought to 
cement their tottering thrones by blood. Both had evil spirits, the 
one in his own soul, the other in the form of an ambitious, mur- 
derous wife. Both came into desperate straits. Both were pressed 



» 

204 Women of the Bible 

bv armed foes. Both were abandoned by men and God. Both, in 
theh Tre extremity, resorted to witches: Saul, at gloomy Endor 
Macbeth, on the blasted heath, amid thunder and lightning met 
the unearthly hags, 'black spirits and white red sprits and grey^ 
Both died unnatural and tragical deaths by means of the same 
„ Mnn „_ th e sword The heads of both were cut off as trophies . 
S1LJ MaXff bore in triumph the ghastly head of Macbeth ; 
and Te Philistines, the day after the battle, cut off Saul s head 

and put it on the walls * *jj**>^ . , ers who professed to 

Tn manv ancient nations there were juggieib way 
be aMe by some species of incantation, to call up the dead from he 
unde work, to consult them on the events of the present or the 
mvsterks of the future. No doubt this same practice found an 
Sne among the Israelites, especially when idolaters were on 
Sone This special phase of the so-called occult arts is com- 
monly termed necromancy, It is not necessary that the dead 
should appear in person, but they may commumca < = by sound , 
rans writing or some similar manifestations. In some respects 
these phenomena are akin to the so-called spiritualistic phenomena 
of our day The children of Israel were early and persistently 
c utoned "against these evil influences. In Leviticus ^3 it 
savs "Re-ard not them that have familiar spirits. A man or a 
woman that hath a familiar spirit shall surely be put to death 
~n thou art come into the land which the Lord Ay God ^veth 
thee thou shall not learn to do after the abominations of those 
nations There shall not be found among you any one that maketh 
his son or his daughter to pass through the fire, or that tiseth , div n- 
a on or an observer of times, or an enchanter, or a witch, or a 
charmer or a consttlter with familiar spirits, or a wizard, or a 
charmer, or a co abomination unto 

necromancer, h or an tnat uu uiot b _ , 

the Lord- and because of these abominations the Lord thy W 
Hoth drive them out from before thee" (Deuteronomy 18:9-12) 
' T t rfltt turneth away after such as have familiar splits 

Wi " jf Tf!e^s g t S o) tha i:S clptuTf S£S his 
^who^ek^te them that have famfliar spirits and unto 

women, who claimed that they were attended by an invisible spirit 




o 

p 

o 






p 

K 
H 

P 

< 

P 
i— 

CO 



The Witch of Endor—an Ancient Spiritualist 205 

that was subject to their call, and inspired them when they sought 
his direction. They could call up the spirits of the dead, who were 
invisible to the living, and they would give information concern- 
ing things which ordinary mortals could not see. In some places 
they are called by a term which is equivalent to our ventriloquist, 
and it is "highly probable that the secret of the art of the sooth- 
sayers consisted very much in being able to throw the voice with 
various modifications into different places, so that it would seem 
to come from a grave, or from an image of a dead person that was 
made to appear at the proper time." To make some atonement 
for his disobedience in other respects, Saul may have rigidly 
executed the law on those who practiced necromancy and divina- 
tion. This witch at Endor had, by some means, escaped his vigi- 
lance, and now, deprived of all other means of consulting the 
divine will, and blinded by the superstitions which more or less 
marked his whole career, he resorts to her who, thus far, had 
escaped his persecutions. 

There have been and are yet various interpretations of this 
story. One theory, and that which seems to lie on the face of the 
narrative, is that Samuel realty was made to appear. The two 
servants who were with Saul seemed to have been the only parties 
besides Saul and the witch. If the account of the story came from 
them, they would surely leave the impression of a natural appear- 
ance. The record gives an account of what seems to have occurred 
without any explanation or philosophy concerning it. Kitto savs ■ 
"There could be no doubt that this was Samuel, and the king look- 
ing closely at the place to which the woman's fixed regards were 
turned, discerned the figure she described. It has been thought 
and we once thought so, that the king did not see the shade but 
merely judged it was Samuel from the woman's description- but 
on looking more closely at the text, it becomes more emphatic than 
it first appears. It is really stated that 'Saul perceived [knew or 
assured himself] that it was Samuel himself.' This is not what 'the 
woman saw, but what Saul saw. The narrative all alon- says it 
was Samuel, which is better authority for the fact than the asser- 
tion of the woman or the impression of Saul. Saul might indeed 
be imposed upon and without much difficulty under the circum- 
stances ; but the historian says he was not, "that it was Samuel 
whom he saw, Samuel to whom he spake, Samuel who spake to 



206 Women of the Bible 

him. All the circumstances agree with this and are unaccountable 
under any other hypothesis." 

Another thus disposes of it: Before the woman had time to 
practice her arts for the deception of the king, behold, at the com- 
mand of God, Samuel actually appeared. The woman herself had 
the least expectation of any such a thing. She was so startled and 
terrified that she cried out with a shriek of horror, and the actual 
appearance of a living man from the spirit world was too much 
for her courage and her self-possession. To her it was .as great 
a surprise as it would have been had the stony idols come down 
from the sides of her cave and spoken with a human voice. 

Her magical arts had no power to compel the great prophet to 
leave the society of Abraham and Moses and appear in that den 
of sorcery. It was by the power and appointment of the infinite 
God that Samuel appeared to confound the arts of the sorcerer 
and again to rebuke the rebellious king because he had not obeyed 
the voice of the Lord. It was no semblance or shadow, much less 
any confederate of the sorceress, any emissary of Satan. It was 
the same majestic, and awful look that Samuel wore when Saul 
saw him at Ramah for the last time, the same voice which com- 
manded the thunder and the rain in the day of the wheat harvest. 
The same words of doom came again from the prophet's voice, 
with the addition that to-morrow all should be fulfilled. The 
unhappy saw and heard, but no word of penitence or of hope came 
from his pale and trembling lip ; 

"Fe heard and fell to earth as falls the oak^ 
At once, and blasted by the thunder stroke. 

When he recovered and rose to go back upon the perilous night 
iourney to his army, he went a doubly doomed and despairing mam 

On the other hand, it seems a little unusual that, when accord- 
ing to Saul's own statement, "God is departed from me and an- 
swereth me no more, neither by prophets nor by dreams that the 
Lord should consent to visit him by the very means which had 
been made illegal, and for the practicing of which the individual 
was to be put to death. We do not mean to say that God cou d 
not and would not bring back his prophets, if a good work should 
be accomplished by them which could not be reached m any other 
way. But this apparition, if it really appeared, does not seem to 



The Witch of Endor—an Ancient Spiritualist 207 

have brought any new information to Saul. He was told the Lord 
had departed from him, but this information was not new to him. 
The Lord would take his kingdom and give it to David, but he 
had learned this before. He had not properly punished Amelek, 
but Samuel had previously reminded him of this. He was told 
that, 'To-morrow thou and thy sons should be with me," which 
to say the least, was unusual language for Samuel. May not this 
man have already prepared for suicide, and may he not have re- 
solved that, rather than be defeated, which seemed very probable, 
and then captured, he will take his own life? 

The Lord had no new message for Saul. If he had, this was 
not the place for such communication. God did use Balaam for 
a purpose, but it is expressly stated that he was under divine con- 
trol. There is no reference to any divine interference here. On 
the contrary, we read pretty plainly between the lines that a sin 
was committed. The man who turns from God to a sorceress is 
not likely to receive divine communications. On the contrary, 
Saul is guilty of additional sin for consulting one whom it was 
illegal for any one to consult, much more the king of Israel. "So 
Saul died for his transgression which he committed against the 
Lord, even against the word of the Lord, which he kept not, and 
also for asking counsel of one that had a familiar spirit, to enquire 
of it" (I. Chronicles 10:13). 

Says Dr. J. M. Buckley: "Before the witch spoke the words 
attributed to Samuel, Saul had given her all the facts that she 
needed to form the answers in this full description of his situation 
and his confession of his helplessness and distress. . . . The 
answer plainly consists of things which Samuel had said while 
living, and of things that could be conjectured from the situation. 
It is not necessary to assume that the woman was wholly a de- 
ceiver. Possibly she believed that her incantations brought up the 
dead, and she may have fallen into a species of trance, in which 
sfie imagined the character suggested by her applicant. If so, she 
would naturally imitate the tone of the supposed responder/and 
would speak to a great degree in harmony with what the character 
might be expected to say under the known circumstances. The 
narrator, as certain ancient church decrees (according to Reginald 
Scott) declare, 'set foorth Saule's mind and Samuel's estate and 



208 Women of the Bible 

certine things which were said and scene, ommitting whether they 
were true or false.' "* 

"The Israelites came from a people surrounded by idolatry and 
addicted to sorcery. They appear to have believed for a long time 
in the reality of the gods of the heathen, considering them inferior, 
however, to the God of Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob, and were 
continually lapsing from the true faith into paganism and sorcery. 
During the hundreds of years that Jacob's descendants were in 
Egypt, their faith was greatly corrupted ; when Moses tarried long 
in the mount, they compelled Aaron to make a golden image to 
represent God. Surrounded by the Egyptians and in the midst 
of the Canaanites, who were not wholly driven out for centuries, 
their king and many of their people frequently relapsed into 
witchcraft and idolatry. ... An examination of the refer- 
ences to witchcraft shows that only the existence and criminality 
of the attempt to practice it are to be concluded from the words of 
the Scriptures. . . . The laws of Moses and the maledictions 
of the prophets show an attempt to prohibit, punish, and extirpate 
the whole host of occult practices of Egypt, Babylon, Media, Per- 
sia, Phoenicia, and every other nation with which the Israelites 
came in contact. The theocratic nature of the government of God 
as set forth by Moses could not allow any rival ; the attempt was 
rebellion and treason, the punishment death." 

Another explanation of this and similar phenomena produced 
by these people is "the capability of putting their minds at will in 
such a connection with the minds of those who consulted them 
that they knew what was passing in their minds. This power, 
possessed by persons of a certain nervous temperament, can be 
traced through all the records of the past. We call it animal mag- 
netism, clairvoyance, the nervous principle, or psychology. It is 
demonstrated now beyond a doubt that, by mysterious but purely 
natural influences, a person of a certain organization can be placed 
at will in such connection with another similarly organized, that the 
mind of the latter will be opened to that of the former ; the former 
will feel, see, and know just what the latter sees and knows." The 
following is an example : Eliot Warburton, in his book entitled 



^Buckley's "Faith Healing etc.," p. 223. 



The Witch of Endor — an Ancient Spiritualist 209 

The Crescent and a Cross, tells us that at Cairo he engaged a 
magician to visit him. "A boy was called in and was made to look 
intently into his own hand; the magician gazed at him fixedly, 
working himself up into great excitement; at last he told Warbtir- 
ton that any one he asked for would appear. He asked for Henry 
Hardinge ; the boy said, 'He is here/ and described him correctly 
as a little man in a black dress, white cravat, gray hair, and having 
but one leg; all of which was true. Others were called and ap- 
peared to the boy who had been placed in psychological connec- 
tion with Warburton by the magician, so that what he saw was 
in the consumer's mind." 

Zschokke, a German writer, in his autobiography, speaks of 
something which he called his inward sight and which he did not 
himself understand. He gives this example which we have 
abridged, giving the substance thereof: "One day, in the city of 
Waldshut, I entered an inn in company with two young student 
foresters. We supped at a place where the guests were making 
merry with Mesmer's magnetism, Lavator's physiognomy, and 
such like. One of my companions, whose national pride was 
wounded by their mockery, begged me to make some reply, partic- 
ularly to a handsome young man who sat opposite to us, and who 
had allowed himself extraordinary license. This man's former 
life was at that moment presented to my mind. I turned to him 
and asked whether he would answer me candidly if I related to 
him some of the most secret passages of his life, I knowing as 
little of him personally as he did of me. He promised if I was 
correct in my information to admit it frankly. I then related what 
my vision had shown me; and the whole company were made 
acquainted with the private history of the young merchant, his 
school years, his youthful errors, and lastly, with a fault committed 
in reference to the strong box of his principal; I described to him 
the uninhabited room with whitened walls, where, to the right of 
a brown door, on a table, stood a black money box ; and a dead 
silence prevailed during the whole narration, which I alone occa- 
sionally interrupted by inquiring whether I spoke the truth. The 
startled young man confirmed every particular and even what I 
had scarcely expected, the last mentioned. Touched by his candor, 
I shook hands with him over the table and said no more. He 



s 



210 Women of the Bible 

asked my name, which I gave him, and we remained talking till 
past midnight. He is probably still living." 

The Spiritualists, of course, claim that the case of Samuel is a 
genuine revelation, exactly in keeping with what they are having 
to-day. We believe that these so-called manifestations may be 
accounted for on the same ground. Some of them are mistakes ; 
others the result of fraud ; others still the result of hypnotic and 
mesmeric influences, which are undeveloped psychic forces, which 
have nothing to do with the world of spirits. Says one: "Many 
of its marvels are now known to be mere tricks of persons inter- 
ested in making money. It is generally admitted, however, that 
there are others which cannot be explained in this convenient way ; 
and it must remain, for the present, an open question whether 
spiritualism does not present to us, on a broad scale, a revival of 
demonism. That many of its spirits, whether they are in the 
flesh or without, are 'unclean spirits,' is abundantly proved by the 
antipathy, manifested in its 'messages,' to our holy religion, and 
by the disastrous moral results to which it leads many of its 
devotees. . . . The supposition of demoniac agency is the 
most natural that we can entertain. If the intelligence appears to 
be weak and foolish as it is wicked, this is but another respect in 
which it resembles the demons of the New Testament whose 
mental power is always of a low kind."* 

The Seybert Commission, a scientific body appointed to make 
investigations concerning the reality of spiritualistic phenomena, 
speaks thus of Dr. Henry Slade, a slate writer: : 'With this 
medium we had a number of sittings, and however wonderful may 
have been the manifestations of his mediumship in the past or 
elsewhere, we were forced to the conclusion that the character of 
those which passed under our observation zvere fraudulent 
throughout. There was really no need of any elaborate method 
of investigation ; close observation was always required." 

"The difficulty attending this mode of spiritualistic manifesta- 
tion [spirit rappings] is increased by the fact, familiar to physiolo- 
gists, that sounds of varying intensity may be produced in almost 
any portion of the human body by voluntary muscular action. ^ To 
determine the exact location of this muscular activity, is at times 



*"Psychic Studies," p. 63. 






The Witch of Endor — an Ancient Spiritualist 211 

a matter of delicacy. What we can say, thus far, with assurance 
is that in the cases which have come under our observation, the 
theory of the purely physiological origin of the sounds has been 
sustained by the fact that the mediums were invariably and con- 
fessedly cognizant of the rappings wherever they occurred, and 
could at once detect any spurious rappings, however exact and 
undistinguishable to other ears might be the 'imitation.' "* 

Dr. P. B. Randolph, who for many years was a lecturer and a 
medium, delivered a discourse in Clinton Hall, N. Y., which was 
afterwards published in the Tribune, in which he says : "I was a 
medium about eight years, during which time I made three thou- 
sand speeches and traveled over several different countries pro- 
claiming the new gospel. . . . Experience has taught me that 
sixty-five per cent, of the medical clairvoyants are arrant knaves, 
humbugs, and catch-penny impostures; thirty-three per cent, are 
refined, sympathetic, nerval persons who arrive at an approxi- 
mately true diagnosis by sympathy ; such are not clairvoyants, of 
course. And five per cent, of the whole are really what they 
claim to be in various degrees of perfection. . . . I am per- 
sonally acquainted with three hundred and forty-one professed 
medical clairvoyants, and of these there are seven actual seers 
who will stand a testing; and of these only one in America. 
. . . The result of my observation is that, if one-half dozen 
sounds out of every five thousand that pass for spiritual be gen- 
uine — that is, not made by the medium's foot against the leg of a 
table, or chair, or by some other jugglery — it is a large percentage. 
When invisible musicians play pianos in dark rooms, if the hands 
of the medium be mittened and held by others and the music still 
goes on, the inference is that they do not produce it. The writing 
upside down is an art readily obtained after a few weeks' private 
practice. Matches or a lump of phosphorus make very good imita- 
tions of spirit-lights. When spirits in a dark room blow horns and 
talk through trumpets, if, unknown to the medium a little printer's 
ink be rubbed on the mouth of the instrument, a beautiful black 
circle will, when lights are introduced, generally be found adorning 
the medium's labial appendage. . . . Dark circles are the 
king humbugs of spiritualism generally. ... Of speaking 

*Seybert Commission, p. 22. 



212 Women of the Bible 

mediums, twenty-five per cent, are, in my opinion, victims of 
demoniac influence ; twenty-five per cent, are deliberate impos- 
tures ; eight per cent, may be under healthful spiritual influences, 
such as are to be found in all church history ; twenty-five per cent, 
are honest-hearted men and women, laboring under the world- 
saving fever, who delude themselves and others by imagining 
they are under a special influence of some defunct philosopher; 
and the remaining seventeen per cent, consist of persons who have 
the power in themselves (although they assign it to the spirits) of 
inducing at will a dreamy sort of ecstasy or trance, during which 
they are frequently insensible to physical pain and possess an 
extraordinary power of mental concentration. This trance can 
easily be induced." 

"There is no possibility of establishing upon our side any 
intercourse with the dead in the realm of death, or of producing 
an apparition of those deceased. The realm of death opens only 
to receive the deceased, not the living; and those who are there 
are chained and bound by the sentence of God, and the hour is 
yet to come when also the realm of death must give up its dead, 
that the final judgment take place. Those, however, who may 
perhaps be preserved there unto life, await the hour of their 
divine deliverance. Neither they themselves, nor others, can even 
for a moment open to them the world on this side the grave." 

"With regard, however, to the blessed who are in heaven, the 
question whether they may come back, even for brief moments, 
falls to the ground of itself; and that we can at least constrain 
them to do so, is totally out of the question. What they might 
perhaps be able or wish to do to those whom they have left be- 
hind, for that God's angels are better ministers and messengers; 
and they are not their messengers but God's whose providential 
care for us here below cannot be excelled by the love of those who 
have gone before." 

The apostle Paul, by divine prophetic insight, tells in his letter 
to Timothy what shall happen in "the latter times," possibly 
referring to our own day. "Now the Spirit speaketh expressly, 
that in the latter times some shall depart from the faith, giving 
heed to seducing spirits and doctrines of devils ; speaking lies in 
hypocrisy ; having their conscience seered with a hot iron ; forbid- 
ding to marry, and commanding to abstain from meats, which God 



The Witch of Endor — an Ancient Spiritualist 213 

had created to be received with thanksgiving of them which be- 
lieve and know the truth" (I. Timothy 4: 1-3). 

Can it be that we are living in the "latter times" referred to 
here by the Spirit, and that the so-called theories of modern 
spiritualists are here described? May not the witch of Endor 
have been a fitting representative of this modern delusion which is 
wise above what is written, discredits the Scriptures, dishonors 
God, promotes superstition, and often leads to wickedness, insan- 
ity, and death? 



3|amtaJ)===tf)e ^raping Jfflotfjer 



"Blessed are the men who have had praying mothers. The influence of 
that fact they cannot shake off. They may curse and swear and go to the 
very boundary of the pit, may go into it, and we doubt whether in all their 
suffering they can ever shake off the influence of having had a praying 
mother. The mother's devotion comes up in the boy's veneration, love of 
right, conscientiousness, magnanimous hope, gentle courage. As with the 
boy and mother, so with the girl and father. Sex is not a physiological 
question only; we find the sex element in disposition, in thinking, in quality 
of strength. Blessed are they who have had a praying ancestry. As for 
such as have not had praying forefathers, there is no reason why they 
should be lost and thrown away. God is our Father, and when father and 
mother forsake us he will take us up. He will lift the beggars from the 
dunghill, and set them among princes, and make them inherit the throne 
of glory." — Dr. Joseph Parker. 



©annafj— tfje $rajung; ifWotfjer 



THE record of this woman is found in the first chapter of the 
Book of Samuel and occurred during the closing of the 
Judges, before the establishment of the monarchy The 
tabernacle is located at Shiloh, and the man who was at once 
judge and high priest is far advanced in years. He seems to have 
been a man of good character himself, but was divinely repri- 
manded because of his indulgence to his two sons, who disgraced 
their father and the priesthood. Eli is not of the regular house 
of Eleazar, the third son of Aaron, in which the succession 
should have continued. The transfer to the house of Ithamar 
continued until its final overthrow in the reign of Solomon We 
know nothing of Eli's early years, nor how he came into this 
position. 'Was this effected through some heroic deed of Eli's 
youth? And did this raise him to the office of high priest or of 
judge? Such a supposition is rendered probable by the union of 
warrior and priest in Phinehas ; and a like transference of the 
pontificate from a like cause appears in the only other time of the 
history when it reaches to a like eminence, when the priestly house 
01 the Maccabees became also the rulers of their countrymen." 

Shiloh was one oi the earliest and most sacred of the Hebrew 
sanctuaries. Its location is described in Judges 21 : 19 as a "place 
which is on the north side of Bethel, on the east side of the high- 
way that goeth up from Bethel to Shechem, and on the south of 
Lebanon." The ark of the covenant, which had been kept at 
Gilgal during the progress of the subjugation of the country was 
removed thence and kept there from the time of Joshua until the 
days of Samuel, covering a period probably of four hundred 
years. 'The ruins found there to-day are inconsiderable Thev 
consist chiefly of the remains of a comparatively modern village 
with which some large stones and fragments of columns are inter- 
mixed evidently from much earlier times. Near a ruined mosque 
flourishes an immense oak, the branches of which the winds of 
centuries have swayed. ... The scenery of Shiloh is not 
specially attractive. It presents no feature of grandeur or beauty 
adapted to impress the mind and to awaken thoughts in harmony 



218 Women of the Bible 

with the memories of the place. For the objects to which Shiloh 
was devoted, it was not unwisely chosen. It was secluded and 
therefore favorable to acts of worship and religious study in which 
the youth of scholars and devotees like Samuel was to be spent. 
Terraces are still visible on the sides of the rocky hills, which 
show that every foot and inch of soil once teemed with verdure 
and fertility. The surrounding hills served as an amphitheatre 
whence the spectators could look and have the entire scene under 
their eyes. To its other advantages we should add that of its 
centralposition for the Hebrews on the west of the Jordan. An 
air of oppressive stillness now hangs over all the scene and adds 
force to the reflection that truly the 'oracles' so long consulted 
there 'are dumb' ; they had fulfilled their purpose and given place 
to a more sure word of prophecy." 

The record tells us of a Levite, named Elkanah, of Mount 
Ephraim. Whether he lived there at the time of which we write, 
or whether he had originally come from that section, we do not 
know. There is a well-known Ramah six miles north of Jeru- 
salem. This may have been the locality of their house. Dr. 
Robinson concludes it was at a place called Sobah, some five miles 
west of Jerusalem. It is enough to say the place cannot be abso- 
lutely identified. It is mentioned here that he had two wives, 
the first mention of anything of that kind since the days of Jacob, 
and the results show that it was no more of a pleasure to him than 
it was to Jacob. A plurality of wives was not absolutely forbidden 
by the laws of Moses, though the possession of more than one 
was exceedingly rare except among those in official position. This 
was permitted at the giving of the law, most likely because the 
"Eternal's mercv would not interfere with a universal usage which, 
his wisdom knew, from local customs and long indulged habit, 
would demand violence to be relinquished. The laws he insti- 
tuted in no way interfered with those habits of his people which 
custom had endeared, his prescience leaving to time that im- 
provement and greater refinement of the human race which de- 
mands ages to accomplish, but which would at length fling aside 
of itself every fetter that once had linked it to the customs of less 
enlightened nations. . . . But though permitted by the Mo- 
saic law, polygamy was so restricted that the protection, happiness, 



Hannah — the Praying Mother 219 

and well-being of both wives were provided for; no partiality 
could commit injustice; the man that did so was punishable by 
law. . . . The laws of Moses relating to conjugal duties pro- 
vided for one wife alone, thus making the distinction between 
those customs which were to last forever, through every age and 
race and clime, and those which were merely nationalized from 
previous habit and association." 

Some Jewish commentators on this case suggest that one of 
the wives of this man was childless as a punishment for having 
taken more than one. It is more than probable, however, that 
Elkanah had taken the second wife because the first bore him no 
children. Here, as in Jacob's case, the unfortunate wife seems to 
have been the one most loved. Peninnah, the wife favored with 
children, seems to have been more annoying than Leah, while 
Hannah bore her taunts and insinuations much more patiently 
and with better spirit than did Rachel. Elkanah experienced the 
truth of the statement of a writer on Persian customs, that "man 
is to be praised who confines himself to one wife; for if he takes 
two it is wrong and he will certainly repent of his folly." Thus 
say the seven wise women : 

"Be that man's life immersed in gloom 

Who weds more wives than one; 
With one his cheeks retain their bloom, 

His voice a cheerful tone; 
These speak. his honest heart at rest 
And he and she are always blest. 
But when with two he seeks for joy 
Together they his soul annoy; 
With two no sunbeam of delight 
Can make his day of misery bright." 

This man was a Levite and, as such, a man in official position, 
hence under special obligations to keep the law. Three times a 
year it was the duty of all the male adults to visit the courts of 
the Lord's house. "That woman was not included by name was, 
instead of being a proof of her lesser importance and responsi- 
bility, a beautiful manifestation of that divine tenderness and jus- 
tice which in their perfection and prescience God only could dis- 
play. A nameless variety of causes might intervene to prevent 
woman's leaving her home in the distant provinces of Judea to 
accompany her father and husband to Jerusalem. Many a man 
might be enabled to obey the law himself, who would have been 



220 Women of the Bible 

prevented from doing so had he been under a positive command 
to bring with him his wife and children." 

Nevertheless, when convenient to do so, pious persons often 
took their wives and children with them. When Joseph went up 
to Jerusalem, he took with him Mary his wife, and the child 
Jesus. In his case, however, he had reached the age of twelve 
years when he was personally under obligations to attend. In 
this case before us, the whole family went up to this sacred place 
of worship ; for, accompanying Elkanah were both the wives 
with the children of Peninnah, both sons and daughters. Han- 
nah seems to have been one of those nervous, sensitive natures on 
whom troubles rest with double weight. The Jewish women con- 
sidered motherhood a special blessing, and for a woman of such 
temperament to be childless was the very height of anguish and 
mortification. To add to this unpleasant condition were the taunts 
of Peninnah, "her adversary," the other wife, who seemed dis- 
posed to vent her illwill and show her contempt for Hannah be- 
cause she had no children and for years her wish had not been 
gratified. We are told, "she provoked her sore to make her fret." 
She could have born these uncalled-for taunts and this wicked 
treatment more patiently had it occurred in the quiet of their own 
mountain home ; but to find them heard by others on their way to 
Shiloh, for whose benefit, no doubt, they were uttered, and to 
have them more pointed when spoken during their stay at Shiloh, 
no doubt, with a view to mortify her in the presence of others, 
cut deep into her very soul. She was unjustly ridiculed for that 
which she could not help, and most likely there were plenty of 
thoughtless people who were aware of the disgrace attaching to a 
childless wife and would smile at the sharp speeches of the favored 
wife which made Hannah's heart to ache. It was a singular spec- 
tacle. "There was the loquacious mother surrounded by her chil- 
dren — children afraid to manifest any of the kind attentions 
which their little hearts might prompt towards one whom their 
mother hated; and there was Hannah by herself, alone, wanting 
in all the little charities and kind solicitudes of motherhood, and 
possessed of no comfort but in God and in the kind attentions of 
her husband's inalienable love, which indeed enfolded her like a 
mantle, though it availed little to protect her from the keen shafts 
of a woman's scurrilous tongue." 



Hannah — the Praying Mother 221 

On these occasions a part of the worship consisted in present- 
ing some suitable animal for a peace offering; and after it had 
been slain and the priest had taken the portions allotted to him— 
the breast and the right shoulder— the remainder was returned to 
the offerer and he and his friends might partake of it as they 
wished. This was the usual way he did. On this occasion he gave 
a portion to Peninnah and her sons and daughters ; to Hannah he 
gave a "worthy portion." Some suppose that he showed his love 
and esteem for her and his appreciation of her lonely condition, 
by giving her a double portion ; others prefer to consider it a choice 
and dainty part of the meat. Such attention on the part of her 
husband would no doubt intensify the cruel actions of her "adver- 
sary" and give a new sting to her unkind utterances ; and so hurt 
had she become, as these things had been borne year by year, that 
at this time she declines to eat what had been so tenderly and 
lovingly provided for her. 

"Hannah was one of the class of women in whom genius and 

a poetic nature are struggling with a vague intensity, ghing the 

keenest edge to desire and disappointment. All Judean women 

desire children, but Hannah had that vivid sense of nationality, 

that identification of self with a sublime future of her people that 

made it bitter to be excluded from all share in those hopes and 

joys of motherhood, from which the earth's deliverer was to 

spring. She desired a son as poets desire song, as an expression 

of all that was heroic and unexpressed in herself, and as a tribute 

to the future glories of her people. A poet stricken with oaralysis 

might suffer as she suffered. But it was a kind and degree of 

sorrow, the result of an exceptional nature, which few could 

comprehend. To some it would afford occasion only for vulgar 

jests. Even her husband, devoted as he was, wondered at, rather 

than sympathized with her." 

Her husband was touched with her afflictions and would do all 
he could to aid her. There are sorrows and heartaches into whose 
deepest recesses no earthly friend can come. "Hannah, why 
weepest thou? and why eatest thou not? and why is thy' heart 
grieved ? am not I better to thee than ten sons ?" There was no 
question of his love or of his kind treatment of her, but none the 
less her heart ached. Some suppose this may indicate lhat Pe- 
ninnah had borne him ten sons. It may, however, mean a large 



222 Women of the Bible 

number and is intended to say that the place she had in his heart 
and the share she had in his affections should bring her as much 
comfort as many children. It has been hinted at, as a possible help 
to understand its force, that among the Arabians a woman who 
gave birth to ten sons was worthy of special honor. In a Beda- 
ween romance we read : "Now it was a custom among the Arabs, 
that when a woman brought forth ten male children she should be 
Moonejeba, that is, enrolled, and for her name to be published 
among the Arabs and they used to say that such an one is enrolled." 

There comes a time to all of us when, in affliction, there is no 
human power to help and yet we must have a helper. This time 
has come to this woman and she has one recourse — the same that 
God's people have always had and in all places, no matter what 
their troubles might have been. Possibly she may have thought 
of the words of Moses, "What nation is there that hath their God 
so nigh unto them, as the Lord our God is unto us in all things that 
we call upon him for?" For just such troubles as these, which no 
earthly physician can heal, has the great Physician been provided. 
In the depths of her anguish she resolves to take her complaint to 
God, make a confidant of him, and ask him for that which above 
all else she desires. She will do that at the sacred feast of Shiloh, 
where he is especially located, and where of all other places he will 
most delight to bless his children. When the meal was over, she 
went to the tabernacle, where, in "bitterness of soul, she prayed 
unto the Lord and wept sore." When she had poured out her 
prayer to God, she vowed a vow that, if the Lord would remember 
her and bless her with a man child, "then I will give him unto 
the Lord all the days of his life, and there shall no razor come 
upon his head." This means he should be a Nazarite for life. In 
the case of Samson and John the Baptist, this obligation was im- 
posed by the will of God ; but in this case it is done freely by the 
parent before the birth of the child. As a Levite, he would, like 
all the others of the tribe, be already devoted to the Lord, but the 
service of the Levites did not begin until the party was thirty 
years of age. Hannah, no doubt, intended that he should not only 
be a Nazarite, but be devoted to the Lord from his earliest years. 

"As she continued praying before the Lord, Eli marked her 
mouth. Now Hannah, she spake in her heart ; only her lips 
moved, but her voice was not heard : therefore Eli thought she 




DEDICATION OF SAMUEL 



Hannah — the Praying Mother 223 

had been drunken." We are not sure whether Eli, who was sit- 
ting "upon a seat by a post of the temple of the Lord," was occu- 
pying a part of the tabernacle itself, or whether he occupied a 
seat by a post near the entrance, where he sat both as high priest 
and judge to give advice in matters of difficulty and to adjust 
cases that might be brought before him. This is the first case of 
unuttered prayer that we know of recorded in Scripture. In the 
East prayers are usually oral, and the conduct of Eli would indi- 
cate that this was the case here; otherwise, from seeing this 
woman's lips move, he would not have hastened to the conclusion 
that she had taken too much wine at the feast and was therefore 
drunken. The high priest rebuked her and said, "How long wilt 
thou be drunken ? put away thy wine from thee." What a dread- 
ful blunder this kind-hearted old man made in his reproof ! Just 
as others do daily in seeking to direct natures they cannot compre- 
hend. How this would aggravate her troubles, to find that no 
one but her husband, not even the high priest, could appreciate 
her situation, but that reproof and misunderstanding came from 
every section! We could not have blamed her much had she 
resented with a little feeling such an insinuation, for which no 
possible occasion had been given, and which should not have been 
intimated against a woman without very strong testimony. She 
bears this with the same meekness with which she had borne other 
burdens, but vindicates herself and shows that he is mistaken. 
She says to him, "No, my Lord, I am a woman of a sorrowful 
spirit : I have drunk neither wine nor strong drink, but have poured 
out my soul before the Lord. Count not thine handmaid for a 
daughter of Belial : for out of the abundance of my complaint and 
grief have I spoken hitherto." When Eli saw his mistake, he 
said unto her tenderly, "Go in peace : and the God of Israel grant 
thee thy petition that thou hast asked of him." And she said to 
him, "Let thine handmaid find grace in thy sight. So the woman 
went her way, and did eat, and her countenance was no more sad." 
This experience illustrates that kind of prevailing prayer that 
comes when the soul, aroused to the full intensity of its being by 
the pressure of some anguish, pours itself out like a wave into the 
bosom of its God. The very outgush is a relief ; there is healing 
in the very act of self-abandonment, as the whole soul casts itself 
on God ; and though there be no present fulfillment, yet, in point 



224 Women of the Bible 

of fact, peace and rest come to the spirit. Hannah had no voice 
of promise, no external sign, only the recorded promise of God 
to hear prayer ; but the prayer brought relief. All the agony of 
desire had passed. 'Her countenance was no more sad.' She 
knew that in God's good time she should have the desire of her 
heart, and she had. They arose in the morning early and returned 
to their own home in Ramah. In due time, she was made the happy 
mother of a son, whom she called Samuel, that is, 'asked of God.' 

The following year, when Elkanah was about to go forth to 
Shiloh again, as was his custom, Hannah declined to go. It was 
not required of her, and she preferred not to go until the child 
should be weaned; and then she said, "I will bring him, that he 
may appear before the Lord, and there abide forever." Just how 
long she remained away from the Shiloh festivals and when she 
did go, is not certain. If she did not go until her child was fit for 
some service in connection with the tabernacle, it would suggest 
a late weaning. Jewish commentators take the period to have 
been at least two years and possibly three, but a child of this age 
even would be too young to be left with strangers^ so far from 
home, and especially if expected to be of any service in connection 
with the employments of the sanctuary. An old writer suggests 
there was a threefold weaning of children in olden times ; the first 
from their mother's milk when three years of age, the second from 
the care of the nurse when seven years of age, the third when they 
became responsible in the sight of the law when twelve years of 
age. "We incline to the seven years, which is certainly not too 
early, and twelve years is perhaps too late; for Hannah, when she 
reappeared at the tabernacle with the child, expected that Eli 
would speedily call to mind their previous interview, an incident 
not sufficiently marked, one would think, however important to 
her, to be remembered after twelve years by one who had, in the 
meanwhile, been in the habit of seeing numerous people under 
every variety of circumstance and from all parts of the land. Eli 
was an old man, and twelve years is but a short space to those 
who are advanced in life. As our years hasten sadly and pass 
with rapid wings, the more precious they become to us." 

When the time came for her, she went with her husband once 
more to the place where, years before, she had poured out her 



Hannah— the Praying Mother 225 

soul unto God. It must have been a glad sight to see that mother, 
who, at this very same spot years before, had had her heart almost 
crushed by the gibes and sneers pointed at her because she was 
childless, now leading her little child to that venerable man, Eli, 
who had made such a sad blunder in reproving her and who pos- 
sibly occupied the same seat where he had looked upon her years 
ago. It seemed almost as though it were but yesterday since she 
was here. She was sure he would remember that, to her, mem- 
orable occasion when her soul went out in agony for help ; and she 
said to him, as though the whole affair was yet fresh in his mem- 
ory, "Oh, my lord, as thy- soul liveth, my lord, I am the woman 
that stood by thee here, praying unto the Lord. For this child 
I prayed; and the Lord hath given me my petition which I asked 
of him. Therefore also I have lent him to the Lord ; as long as he 
liveth he shall be lent to the Lord." 

Mrs. Hemans pictures the journey made by this Hebrew, 
mother and son in the following lines : 

"The rose was rich in bloom on Sharon's plain 
When a young mother with her first born thence 
Went up to Zion, for the boy was vowed 
Unto the temple service ; by the hand 
She led him and her silent soul the while 
Oft, as the dewy laughter of his eye 
Met her sweet, serious glance, rejoiced to think 
That ought so pure, so beautiful, was hers 
To bring before her God. So passed they on 
O er Judah's hills ; and wheresoe'er the leaves 
Of the broad sycamore made sounds at noon 
Like lulling raindrops, or the olive boughs 
With their cool dimness crossed the sultry blue 
Of Syria's heaven, she paused that he might rest; 
Yet from her own meek eyelids chased the sleep 
That weighed their dark fringe down, to sit and watch 
lne crimson deepening o'er his cheeks' repose 
As at a red flower's heart; and when a fount 
Lay hke a twilight star, midst palmy shades 
Making its banks green gems along the wild, 
Then too she lingered, from the diamond wave 
Drawing light waters for his rosy lips 
And softly parting clusters of jet curls 
To bathe his brow. At last the Fane was reached, 
The earth's One Sanctuary; and rapture hushed 
Her bosom, as before her, through the day 
It rose, a mountain of white marble steeped 
In light like floating gold." 



226 Women of the Bible 

When she came to this place she had brought with her "three 
bullocks and one ephah of flour and a bottle of wine." The bul- 
locks were slain on the altar as a preparation for the ceremony of 
giving her child to God ; the blood representing the blood of the 
coming High Priest who should give his own life a ransom for 
many. In this hour of glad triumph, when her prayer had received 
visible answer, her soul breaks forth like Miriam of old in a song 
of praise and thanksgiving. It is a remarkable specimen of the 
early lyric poetry of the Hebrews. It contains the first designa- 
tion of the Messiah under that name. Many of the ideas and 
images were repeated afterwards by the mother of Jesus on a 
similar occasion. It is said that when the allied forces of state 
and church were combining against Martin Luther and he had to 
stand almost as one man against a world, he found refuge in the 
song of this now glad-hearted woman. He printed it as a tract, 
with suitable comments,- and spread it all over Europe. In thou- 
sands of hamlets, hearts were beating to the heroic words of this 
Judean mother: 

"My heart rejoiceth in Jehovah, 
My horn is exalted in Jehovah; 
My speech shall flow out over my enemies, 
Because I rejoice in thy salvation. 
There is none holy as Jehovah ; 
For there is none beside thee ; 
Neither is there any rock like our God. 
Talk no more so exceedingly proudly; 
Let not arrogance come out of thy mouth; 
For Jehovah is the God of knowledge, 
By him are actions weighed. 
The bows of mighty men are broken, 
But the weak are girded with strength. 
The rich are hired out for bread ; 
But the hungry cease from want. 
The barren woman hath born seven; 
The fruitful one hath grown feeble. 
Jehovah killeth and maketh alive; 

He bringeth down to the grave and bringeth up. 

Jehovah maketh poor and maketh rich ; 

He bringeth and lifteth up. 

He raiseth the poor out of the dust, 

He lifteth the beggar from the dunghill, 

To set them among princes, 

To make them inherit the throne of glory; 

For the pillars of the earth are Jehovah's ; 

He hath set the world upon them. 



Hannah — the Praying Mother 227 

He will keep the feet of his saints, 

The wicked shall be silent in darkness; 

For by strength no man shall prevail. 

The adversaries of Jehovah shall be broken to pieces- 

Out of heaven shall he thunder upon them. 

Jehovah shall judge the ends of the earth;' 

He shall give strength unto his King, 

And exalt the horn of his Anointed." 

"This song shows the fire, the depth, the fervency of the nature 
of this woman, capable of rising to the sublimest conceptions It 
is the ecstasy of the triumph of conscious weakness in an omnipo- 
tent protector. Through her own experience, as it is with every 
true soul, she passes to the experience of universal humanity in 
ner Deliverer she sees a deliverer and helper of all the helpless 
and desolate; and thus, through the gate of personal experience 
she comes to a wide sympathy with all who live. She loves her 
God, not mainly and only for what he is to her, but for what he 
is to all. How high and splendid were these conceptions and 
experiences that visited and hallowed the life of the simple and 
lowly Jewish woman in those rugged and unsettled periods ; and 
what beautiful glimpses do we get of the good and honest-hearted 
people that lived at that time in Palestine and went up yearly to 
worship at Shiloh ! 

"The story goes to show that the condition of married women 
among the Jews in the time of the Judges was quite free and un- 
restrained. After they had eaten and drunk in Shiloh, Hannah 
without imparting her intentions to her husband, goes unattended 
to the temple of the Lord. Here she vowed a vow that if a son 
were given her, she would devote him to the Lord all the days of 
his life, and no razor should come upon his head. Her going to 
pray as she did would have excited remark had it not been*the 
common custom of the nation. How could she have devoted her 
child to God had she not been sure that her husband would abide 
by her decision ? She assumes her right to remain at home till 
her child is old enough to be left with the priest. It is Hannah 
who brings the bullocks, flour, and wine, and Hannah who offered 
them -She addressed Eli, she chanted the song of thanksgiving 
and she devoted the child. The husband and father had no more 
to do with it than the simple acts of acquiescence and approval 



228 Women of the Bible 

which he would not have so unhesitatingly bestowed had he not 
possessed the most perfect confidence in the judgment and actions 

of his wife." 

The tabernacle of the Lord would seem to be the best place 
in all the world to leave a child, and yet, under the very shadow 
of the building, yea, inside of the sacred precincts, influences were 
at work which might have thoroughly corrupted this lad. Here 
were the two sons of Eli, Hophni and Phinehas, priests of the 
Lord ; but while their office was a holy one, their characters were 
corrupt. The administration of their office was characterized by 
the most grasping selfishness. The record says, "The sons of Eli 
were sons of Belial, they knew not the Lord." This is not the 
language of enemies but of the inspired penman. From that time 
to the present, it has been possible for men to be in high position, 
to pronounce holy words, to be clothed in emblematic robes, and 
yet to be full of corruption and death. "It is possible for a man 
to have a pulpit and to have no God, to have a Bible and no Holy 
Ghost, to be employing his lips in uttering the eloquences of truth, 
when his heart has gone astray from all that is true, beautiful, and 
good. At the very moment his lips are formed by the words that 
ought to have converted himself, his heart is not in his work ; it 
is wandering far off yonder, buying and selling and getting gain, 
sucking in poison when it ought to have extracted honey, and 
making the Word of God of none effect." 

All this had a bad influence on the people. The record says, 
"The sin of the young men was very great," and as a result, "M en 
abhorred the offering of the Lord." Their conduct was a matter 
of public remark and censure. Eli himself heard of their con- 
duct and said to them, "Ye make the Lord's people to transgress." 
Men should look at God and not at the priest ; we should aim to 
follow Christ and not the church member. After all, it is very 
hard not to be influenced by men in high official position. As this 
was a matter of common talk, there is no doubt Hannah knew of 
it, and, with her thoughtful mind, knew of the danger to which a 
boy would be subjected by coming in contact with such associa- 
tions ; but she also knew the worth of prayer. She had asked 
this child of the Lord and had received him. She now gives him 
back to the service of the sanctuary, with the full faith that her 
prayers and her teaching, and, above all, the guidance of the Lord, 



Hannah — the Praying Mother 229 

would keep him in the right way. Her confidence was not a rash 
one. This very child was the instrument in God's hand to make 
known the punishment which should come upon these dissolute 
priests. 

The poet, in the following lines, attempts to picture for us the 
woman s heart as she leaves her boy behind her : 

i».j, .. .. , "But when that hour 

Waned to the fair moment, when the boy 

Lifted through rainbow gleaming- tears his eve 

Beseechingly to hers and half in fear 

Turned from the white-robed priest and 'round her arm 

Uung as the ivy clings— the deep spring tide 

Of nature then swelled high and o'er her child 

Bending, her soul broke forth in mingled sounds 

Of weeping and sad song : 'Alas/ she cried,— 

"^ las ' Py bov > thy gentle grasp is on me, 
1 he bright tears quiver in thy pleading eyes 

And now fond thoughts arise, 
And silver cords again to earth have won me ■ 
And like a vine thou claspest my full heart— ' 
How shall I hence depart? 

" 'How the lone paths retrace where thou wert playino- 
bo late, along the mountains, at my side ? 

And I in joyous pride 
By every place of flowers my course delaying 
Wove, e en as pearls, the lilies 'round thy hair 

Beholding thee so fair. 

wni d ,-f° h ' l he h ° me ^ h T Ce thy bri ^ ht smiIe ha th parted ! 
Will it not seem as if the sunny day 

Turned from its door away, 
While through its chambers wandering, weary-hearted 
I languish for thy voice, which past me still 

Went like a singing rill ? 

"'Under the palm trees thou no more shalt meet me 
When from the fount at evening I return 
With the full water-urn; 

a ° r ™R ? y M eep ' s low ' d ove-like breathing greet me 
As midst the silence of the stars I wake 
And watch for thy dear sake. 

''whLt*!™* i Um , be r ,S f I ewy cloud fal1 ' ro «»d thee 
Without thy mother's hand to smooth thv bed 

Wilt thou not vainly spread 
1 nine arm, when darkness as a veil hatji wound thee 
To fold my neck and lift up, in thy fear C ' 

A cry which none shall hear? 



230 Women of the Bible 

"'What have I said, my child? Will He not hear me 
Who the young ravens heareth from their nest? 

Shall He not guard thy rest 
And in the hush of holy midnight near thee _ 
Breathe o'er thy soul and fill its dreams with joy? 
" Thou shalt sleep soft, my boy. 

" 'I gave thee to thy God— the God that gave thee 
A well-spring of deep gladness to my heart. 

And precious as thou art 
And pure as dews of Hermon, he shall have thee, 
My own, my beautiful, my undefiled, 
And thou shalt be his child. 

" Therefore, farewell. I go— my soul may fail me, 
As the hart panteth for the waterbrooks 

Yearning for thy sweet looks ; 
But thou, my first born, droop not nor bewail me, 
Thou in the shadow of the Rock shalt dwell, 

The Rock of strength.— Farewell.' ' 

The mother went back to her old home leaving her child be- 
hind her, and there is no doubt for a time it seemed lonely and 
desolate.' Wherever she looked there was something, a vacant 
room, a broken toy, a half -worn garment, to remind her of the 
one who had brought such light and joy into her life. As she sits 
there in her loneliness, no one is present to climb upon her knee 
as aforetime, to place his loving arms about her neck and cheer 
her heart with little tokens of affection. But when she remem- 
bered her former reproach and how God had taken it away, and 
what pleasant memories she now has, her heart was comforted. 
Her own home was more lonely, but the temple of God was 
brighter because of her boy. Other boys were growing up in 
wickedness, but hers was trimming the lamps or performing other 
needed work about the tabernacle. While she was sure he was in 
safe hands, her motherly heart was still solicitous for his welfare. 
She came up year by year to attend the services of the tabernacle, 
and she witnessed with pleasure the growth of her only chili "as 
he ministered before the Lord," and grew in favor with all. "She 
made him a little coat, and brought it from year to year when she 
came with her husband to the yearly sacrifice." As she wrought 
upon the garment, how her thought went out after the absent boy 
who was soon to wear it, and to Him who rules the destinies of 



Hannah — the Praying Mother 231 

men that he would preserve him from all evil. No doubt she 
pictured a bright future for him, as all mothers do for their chil- 
dren, but she scarcely had any conception of the high position to 
which he was afterwards called, and the great honor which God 
put upon him. At the present time his immediate duty would be 
found in trimming the lamps, looking after the sacrificial fires, 
and doing such other work under the direction of the high priest 
as his tender years would allow. Eli became very much attached 
to him, and he found the more comfort and consolation in this 
faithful boy, because that his own sons were disgracing him and 
embittering his life by their profligate conduct. Later on, Eli, who 
had been "so impressed by the fine qualities of this child, so 
affected by the circumstances of his birth, and so gratified by the 
excellent conduct of the parents, bestowed upon them his solemn 
blessing and prayed that they might have rich returns in kind for 
the child they had so faithfully and entirely lent to the Lord. And 
so it came to pass, Hannah had afterwards three sons and two 
daughters. This was large interest for her loan.' But the Lord 
is a very bountiful paymaster; and amidst all the fervid specula- 
tions which inflamed the world, to lend to him remains the very 
best investment which any one can make of aught that he pos- 



sesses." 



Child of prayer as Samuel was, and reared under the influence 
of an intensely earnest Christian mother, his own nature seemed 
heavenly, and the Lord honored all this by early choosing him as 
a medium for the communication of divine truth. One of the 
most thrilling passages in the whole Bible describes the first direct 
call of God which comes to this consecrated child. He slept at 
night within call of the high priest, who is growing old, and "his 
eyes began to wax dim that he could not see." The old man was 
in the habit of requiring his services at night. In the dead of 
night, toward morning, before the lamp had gone out, Samuel 
hears a voice which seems to be that of Eli, and three times he 
responds. The aged priest sees something more than human in 
the call and instructed Samuel how to do. A wonderful message 
was communicated to him, even a terrible judgment upon the 
house of Eli. He lay quiet until morning and proceeded to his 
work as though nothing had happened. He would have kept it 



232 Women of the Bible 

to himself, but when solemnly charged by Eli, he told him all that 
had passed. "The whole story is a beautiful introduction to the 
life of the last and most favored of those prophetic magistrates 
who interpreted to the Jewish people the will of God. Samuel was 
the last of the Judges, the strongest, the purest, and most blame- 
less — the worthy son of such a mother," 



gfosail-tlje Superior Wife 



"For woman is not undeveloped man, 
But diverse; could we make her as the man, 
Sweet love were slain; his dearest bond is this: 
Not like to like, but like in difference. 
Yet in the long years liker must they grow : 
The man be more of woman, she of man; 
He gain in sweetness and in moral height, 
Nor lose the wrestling thews that throw the world; 
She mental breadth, nor fail in child ward care, 
Nor lose the child-like in the larger mind; 
Till at the last she set herself to man, 
Like perfect music unto noble words. 
And so these twain, upon the skirts of Time, 
Sit side by side, full-summed in all their powers, 
Dispensing harvest, sowing the To-be, 
Self reverent each and reverencing each, 
Distinct in individualities, 
But like each other e'en as those who love. 
Then comes the statelier Eden back to man; 
Then reign the world's great bridals, chaste and calm; 
Then springs the crowning race of human kind. 
May these things be?" 

— "The Princess," by Alfred Tennyson, 



Sbtgail— tfje Superior Witt 



THE Apostle James tells us that "Elijah was a man subject 
to like passions as we are, and he prayed earnestly that it 
might not rain : and it rained not on the earth by the space 
of three years and six months." That he should have fled from 
the face of a heathen queen who threatened his life, after the 
magnificent victory on Mount Carmel, very greatly confirms the 
statement that he was made of the same clay as other men. We 
lose very much of the helpfulness of Scripture biography when 
we consider the characters therein described as a class separate 
and apart from ourselves. They are human beings, bone of our 
bone, flesh of our flesh, and therefore more or less subject to the 
influences and aspirations which belong to all human beings. 
Their mental and spiritual development may have differed from 
our own ; the prevailing ideas of the age in which they lived, and 
their local surroundings, were not like ours ; but they were human 
beings, none the less, and subject to the hopes and fears, the aspi- 
rations and the weaknesses, which belong to the race. 

There is a tendency either to overrate or underrate all histor- 
ical personages. If they are commendable characters, we lose 
sight of their weaknesses, we conceal their sins, and unduly mag- 
nify and exalt the better part of their natures. If they are morally 
bad, as was Jezebel, or inordinantly ambitious, as was Bonaparte, 
we lose sight of their better qualities and make conspicuous the 
evil. Hardly any man is as bad as he is painted, or as good as 
the records of history would make him. We are taught that 
David was a man after God's own heart ; and when this is said, 
men point to his crimes as proof to the contrary. The real truth 
is, that his life was a mixed life, as are all others. In the height 
of his power and under strong temptation, he committed great 
sins, as in the case of Bathsheba and Uriah. When he realized 
what he had done, he loathed himself for his wickedness, he sor- 
rowed with a great sorrow for what he had done, and did all he 
could to make restitution for the wrong. Take the record of his 



236 Women of the Bible 

whole life ; every man who reads it is made better thereby. It k 
not that of a man whose general life is wicked, with here and there 
a ray of light making the blackness of his deeds the greater, but 
of a man who is imperfect, yet in whom goodness and virtue are 
the rule and wickedness the exception, a man who is trying to get 
away from his weaknesses and constantly reaching up after his 
mind's ideal. 

When we think of his wickedness, let us remember that won- 
derful confession in the fifty-first Psalm : "Have mercy on me, 
O God, according to thy lovingkindness : . . . blot out my 
transgressions. Wash me throughly from mine iniquity, and 
cleanse me from my sin. For I acknowledge my transgressions : 
and my sin is ever before me." Think of that friendship for 
Jonathan, passing the love of woman! Hearing that David was 
-in the forest of Ziph, he resolves to visit him, to encourage him by 
his counsels, to tell him "the hand of Saul my father shall not 
find thee." Here they made a brotherly covenant in which David 
promised to show favor to Jonathan and to his descendants for- 
ever. Look at him as he gazes on the body of his ungrateful son 
and cries out in the agony of that hour, "O, my son, Absalom, my 
son, my son Absalom, would God I had died for thee. O, Absa- 
lom, my son, my son." He was, in the highest sense, a poet. "He 
has left us elegies, odes, triumphant songs, descriptive pieces, and 
sacred lyrics, in which every chord of the human heart, every mo- 
tion of the soul, every aspiration of the spirit, is touched with the 
master hand. So deeply does he sound the depths of man's nature, 
so loftily does he soar to the gates of light, that no poet has ever 
lived whose ideas have become so much the common property of 
nations, none in whose beautiful word the hopes, the fear, the joys, 
the griefs, of the spiritual man have found such adequate expres- 
sion. They are no less appropriate, at this day, in the mouth of 
the weaver at his loom and the cord wainer at his stall, than they 
were of old to the men who sat beneath the fig tree and the vines 
of Canaan." 

He was goodly to look upon. "The eyes of men rested upon 
his engaging and happy countenance with pleasure, and withdrew 
from it with regret. The rare combinations in him of all that was 
gentle, tender, mild, with the most exalted enthusiasm, the most 
noble aspirations, the most generous sentiments, the most manly 



Abigail — the Superior Wife 237 

deportment, the most heroic daring, and the most invincible prow- 
ess, joined to his invariable consideration for others, his open- 
heartedness, his humbleness, and the entire absence of pretense 
in him, made men feel better when they looked upon him ; and it 
exalted their hearts to know that they were sharers of the nature 
which, under divine grace, became capable of such impressive 
development. . . . Above all, he had deeply studied such part? 
of the sacred Scriptures as then existed. His writings continually 
evinced his close acquaintance with it, his admiration for it, his 
intense appreciation of its value, his love for it. Thy word have 
I hid in my heart that I might not sin against thee. I have re- 
joiced in the way of thy testimonies as much as in all riches.' " 

Samuel was sent to Bethlehem to anoint one of the sons of 
Jesse to be king. Because "the Lord looketh on the heart and not 
on the outward appearance," the older brothers were passed by 
and the youngest son, a lad of fifteen, was chosen. The consecra- 
tion by the prophet brought no immediate change in his pursuits. 
He lived the life of a shepherd, developing through communion 
with nature that wonderful genius for music and poetry which 
manifested itself in the Psalms, and that daring and courage which 
stood him so well in the contests of his after life. King Saul was 
subject to fits of melancholy, and it was said, "an evil spirit from 
the Lord troubled him." Some one remembered that a son of 
Jesse was skillful in playing, and it was thought that music might 
help to allay the troubles of Saul. One day, there came a com- 
mand to Jesse from the king : "Send me David thy son, who is 
with the sheep." It was ten miles to Gibeah. With his shepherd 
staff and scrip, and with his light harp swung across his back, 
he reaches the king the same day that he had left his home. The 
king was greatly pleased with the young man, and sent to Jesse a 
message saying, "Let David, I pray thee, stand before me, for he 
hath found favor in my sight." So he remained some time, and 
when Saul's fits came upon him, David took his harp and played 
before him, and the delicious strains of music lulled the king's 
melancholy, and he "was refreshed and was well, and the evil 
spirit departed from him." 

The king seems to have improved, and David, after a time, 
went back again to his father's sheep. Two or three years pass 
away, and David is on his way to the army to visit his brethren. 



238 Women of the Bible 

There is war with the Philistines, and the three eldest sons of 
Jesse are in the camp. There comes a time when David is divinely 
moved to offer himself against Goliath. The king consents, and 
David goes forth and slays the giant. He is now a public man, 
and there is no more private life for him. He seems to have out- 
grown the memory of the king, but the latter needs such men, so 
from that day he "would let him go no more to his father's home." 
From the day of his promotion, his troubles began. The people 
praised David for what he had done, and the king began to fear 
that David was the coming man. He was "afraid of David be- 
cause the Lord was with him." The king's dislike finally took on 
the form of violence. He was no longer safe in his presence ; so 
under cover of the night, he fled from the court, and until Saul's 
death, a period probably of seven years from this time, he is a 
fugitive and an outlaw. He soon gathered about him some chosen 
spirits who loved him and who were dissatisfied with the conduct 
of the king. He went from place to place rendering such assis- 
tance as he could and defending those who needed defense. "It 
was not his purpose to set himself forth as a competitor for the 
crown ; that, his sworn friendship for Jonathan, no less than his 
determination to await the course of the Lord's providence, for- 
bade. He was enabled, however, to take a stand upon the defen- 
sive, and to assume such a position before the public eye as would 
engage the interest of the people in his person and movements, 
and prevent his claims, his services, and his wrongs from passing 
out of mind/' A larger body of men united their destinies with 
his, and he must so use them that he will not be understood co 
assume any hostile attitude toward the king nor give the people 
any cause of complaint. He would employ them most likely "in 
protecting the cattle in the wild and open border country into 
which the great sheepmasters sent their flocks for pasture, from 
the depredations of their marauding neighbors, such as the Arabs, 
the Amalekites, the Jebusites, the Hittites, and others. This 
species of service creates a claim for a kind of tribute from the 
wealthy persons thus so essentially benefited, of food and other 
necessaries, which is almost invariably, most willingly, and even 
thankfully rendered, and when not so, is enforced as a matter of 
right" 



Abigail — the Superior Wife 239 

It was during this period of his outlaw life that the following 
incident occurred : In the town of Maon, in the southern part 
of Judea, we are introduced to a husband and wife. They are 
living luxuriantly and are quite wealthy, for among his posses- 
sions at Carmel were "three thousand sheep and a thousand goats," 
and other property, no doubt, to correspond. The wife's name 
was Abigail, meaning "joy, exultation of a father." The name 
might have been given to her to express the father's joy that so 
interesting a daughter had been given to him to add to the com- 
fort and pleasure of his home. We are told that she was a woman 
of "beautiful countenance." This was a very desirable gift, in 
the possession of which any one might well rejoice. While regu- 
larity and a proper proportion in the features are desirable, this 
is not the highest type of beauty. Says Addison : "The head has 
the most beautiful appearance as well as the highest station in a 
human figure. Nature has laid out all her art in beautifying the 
face ; she has touched it with vermillion, plaited it in a double row 
of ivory, made it the seat of smiles and blushes, lightened it up 
and enlivened it with the brightness of the eyes, hung it on each 
side with curious organs of sense, given it airs and graces that can- 
not be described, and surrounded it with such a flowing shade of 
hair as sets all its beauties in the most agreeable light. In short, 
she seems to have designed the head as the cupola to the most 
glorious of her works." 

But she was a woman of "good understanding" and this is 
infinitely preferable to a well-proportioned face, as desirable as 
that may be. We believe the highest kind of beauty is that which 
makes a revelation of thought, feeling, and purpose. "As 'matter 
is pervaded with life, we recognize a new beauty different alto- 
gether in kind and higher in degree. The masses of earth put on a 
new charm when a free life wreathes its towering heights with cor- 
onets of forest green, or decks its great vales with waving grain, 
or spreads upon them its tapestry of foliage and flower. Earth 
comes nearer to us, enters deeper into the spirit sympathies, when 
she robes herself in forms of life, even in her more massive shapes. 
In her minuter parts and far above the beauty of mere matter, is 
the regularity and fitness and ideal or specific harmony which 
vegetable life so universally evinces; the expressive depth and 
brilliancy, and their graceful blending and delicate gradation 



240 Women of the Bible 

showing everywhere the traceries of a divine pencil. ... As 
we enter the region of sentient being, still richer, more essential, 
more perfect grades of the idea] meet us." 

She was evidently a woman of good judgment, prudent and 
discreet, one who knew it were easier not to enter into a quarrel 
than, when once in, to make your way out with honor. She had 
the skill to adapt herself to circumstances and to win favor from 
such a man as David. The strange thing is how she happened to 
be joined to such a boorish, unappreciating husband; and yet not 
so strange when one stops to think, for there are plenty of such 
ill-matched pairs in our own day and with our increased civiliza- 
tion. Her husband's name was Nabal, which meant "fool." He 
is described in the record as "churlish and evil in his doing." 
That would mean brutal, illhumored, covetous, and narrow- 
minded. He was avaricious and selfish, as was evidenced by his 
conduct. He thought only of his possessions and worshiped his 
wealth. He would be a man hard to manage because unreason- 
able. No one could have much influence over him. Even his 
servants, who no doubt knew him best, said he was "such a son of 
Belial, that one cannot speak to him." A man who was sufficient 
in himself and did not care to take any advice from others. But 
there is a worse record than this. When his wife returns home, 
she finds he is having a feast in his house, "like the feast of a 
king; and Nabal's heart was merry within him, for he was very 
drunken; wherefore she told him nothing less or more until the 
morning light." What sort of companionship did this coarse, 
brutal, drunken man furnish to this woman of great beauty and 
intelligence ? 

We wonder how she came into such unpleasant associations. 
A woman of such taste could not have preferred it. A woman of 
"good understanding," prudence, and discretion, would not of her 
own judgment have made such a blunder. In those days, as now, 
a drunken husband was not the kind to be selected by a sensible 
woman. Our inquiry is in part answered by the fact that among 
the Jewish people, in those days, the alliances of the daughters 
were contracted and arranged for by the parents themselves. 
They might not have known his bad qualities, or, if they did, they 
might have found others which compensated for them. There are 



'Abigail— the Superior Wife 241 

things which, in the eyes of ambitious parents seeking positions 
for their daughters, will cover a multitude of sins P° s " 10us 

t, r ", C "jf ° nged , °" e ,° f the most distinguished ian.ilies in 

f, ;, S T aS a d f Cendant ° f Caleb ' wh0 was °»e of .the faith- 
ful with Joshua, and, on account of his faithfulness, Joshua gave 

tTever 5 H^ ° f M T to ^ong.to him and his desceXte 
torever. He is supposed to have been a descendant of Hobab a 
kinsman of Moses. By a comparison of two or three Scriptr 
references, there ,s reason to think that he sprang from Rechab 
whose son Jehonadab commanded his son saying, "Ye shall drink 
no wine, ye nor your sons, forever/' Jeremiah afterwards said 

the on S of y R J? 6 , , ey n d ^ "^ ° f y0Ur fathers ' therefore 
the son of Rechab shall not want a son to stand before me for- 

r ; avp T ! b K e f ^cendant of this family of total abstainers, did 
not save Nabal from the curse and disgrace of strong drink In 
a sense, every man is the maker of his own fortune. No splendid 
hne of ancestry, desirable as it is, will cause a man to live a 
virtuous, upright life. Nor will humble and unknown an estry 
hmder a man from walking in the path of honor and uprightness 
if he so desire. Nabal, like the men of to-day who have a good 
me of descent and yet live disgraceful lives, so lived because he 

to ruT " t0 S aPPedte ' a " d feaSOn WaS "° ^ allowed 
This man was wealthy in flocks and herds, and then as now 
that fact alone would atone for many weaknesses. Many a hand-' 
some girl of good hfe and character, is sold to some vjLSs 
man who has great estates and money in bank. Money will con 
ceal his imperfections of character, will compensate for his hack 
of morals, wifl even make up for the absence of intelligence and 

Tier a^the V* *~l *"* ^ h ^ woman whfc" mmits 
her all to the keeping of a coarse, rough, drunken man, whose most 
attractive quality ,s that he has wealth, has made a sad mistake 
which nothing can remedy but death. "Gold cannot buy hand 
ness and parents who compel their daughters to marry for money 
or station, commit a grievous sin against humanity and God And 
the woman who marries a churl for his wealth will find that she 

::™^3 e ^ that all the glitterings of heaves 
b rancleur are but the phosphorescent gleamings of heart-wretcherl 
ness; that her life will be one of gilded misty, and her old age 



242 Women of the Bible 

will be like a crag on the bleak side of a desert mountain, where 
cold moonbeams sometimes glitter but no sunshine ever falls, no 
flowers bloom, no birds sing, but wild storms howl and hoarse 
thunders roar ; and through the sweeping storms shall be heard the 
stern voice of the great God, saying, 'Your riches are corrupted, 
your garments are moth-eaten, your gold and silver are cankered, 
and the rust of them shall be a witness against you and eat your 
flesh as if it were fire.' " 

This man's wealth consisted, to a great extent, in sheep 
and goats. As many as three thousand of the first and one 
thousand of the second are mentioned. While the shepherds were 
looking after their flocks, they met a band of outlaws who showed 
them unexpected kindnesses. These were David and his men, who 
"abode in the wilderness of Maon." Had David or his men been 
so disposed, they could readily have molested the shepherds and 
carried off the sheep, but the shepherds themselves spake very 
highly of these men saying, "The men were very good to us and 
we were not hurt, neither missed we anything as long as we were 
conversant with them when we were in the fields. They were a 
wall to us both by night and by day, all the while we were with 
them keeping the sheep." Such protection as David gave is very 
highly valued in the East, and a suitable present to the protecting 
party will be thought of as a matter of course by every thoughtful 

man. 

There came a time, however, when there was a great banquet 
at Carmel. The sheep had been gathered in from the wilderness 
for shearing. As a part of the festivities appropriate to the occa- 
sion, they have eating and drinking, "like the feast of a king." 
David and his men having been pursued by Saul, their resources 
are limited, their provisions about exhausted, and hunger begins 
to gnaw their vitals. They hear that Nabal's flocks are gathered 
in for the shearing. They could easily pounce down on the shep- 
herds and supply their own wants; but David, injured and ban- 
ished, and hunted like a partridge on the mountains, is neither 
robber nor thief. He selects from his attendants an embassy of 
ten men and sends them to Nabal. The shepherds at once recog- 
nize them as belonging to the chief who had defended them in the 
wilderness. As they approached, they courteously made a triple 
salutation; and thus 'delivered the message which David had given 



Abigail— the Superior Wife 243 

them • "J have heard that thou hast shearers : thy shepherds have 
now been with us, and we did them no hurt, neither was there 
aught missing unto them, all the while they were in Carmel Ask 
thy young men, and they will tell thee : wherefore let the voun- 
men find favor in thine eyes; for we come in a good day give I 
pray thee, whatsoever cometh to thine hand, unto thy servants 
and to thy son David." ' 

The request could not have been a more courteous one and 
would without doubt have reached the heart of any ordinary man 
1 hey justly merited, at the hands of this man, everything they 
asked. From a man of such notorious obstinacy, they could not 
be sure of evil treatment. If anything were needed to justify the 
appropriateness of his name, Nabal-fool-it was his reception" 
of this message When he had heard them through, he broke out 
m his fury, Who is David? and who is the son of Jesse? There 
be many servants now a days that break away every man from his 
master Shal I then take my bread, and my water, and my flesh 
hat I have killed for my shearers, and give it unto men, whom I 
know not whence they be ?" It is more than likely this man lied 
in this statement in order to make excuse for his stinginess It is 
not at all probable that a man of such wealth would not hear of 
David. Indeed it is more than probable that the shepherds had 
reported to Nabal how they had been protected. If he did not 
know, he could readily have asked them, and they would have 
told him that David not only kept his own native followers from 
interfering with them, but had in addition protected them from 
bands of marauders which infested the wilderness. 

The men returned and reported to David how they had been 
treated. He is a man of strong passion, and he is indignant at the 
treatment received from this wealthy fool. He does not intend 
that either himself or his men shall be insulted. If this man will 
not do as other men are glad to do, give some little compensation 
for the valuable services they have rendered him, he shall lose all 
he has, including his own life. He gives instruction to his men 
Gird ye on every man his sword: and they girded on every man 
his sword; and David also girded on his sword, and they went up 

the e stS» hU " dred men ! 3nd tW ° hundred abod * ^ 



244 Women of the Bible 

In the meantime, as soon as the ten men had departed from 
Nabal the shepherds saw the danger which their master and 
themselves would incur. They knew the justice of David's request, 
and they also knew he was not the man to endure patiently such 
ungrateful treatment. One of them at once reports to Abigail, 
the 5 wife, saying, "Behold, David sent messengers out of the wil- 
derness to salute our master, and he flew upon them." Having 
reported how kindly David had treated them, he says further, 
"Now consider what thou wilt -do, for evil is determined" against 
our master and against all his house ; for he is such a son of 
Belial that one cannot speak to him." Now is the time for a 
woman of understanding to show her skill. She is grieved at the 
foolhardiness of her husband and realizes the impending danger 
to all. The wellbeing of her household is at stake, and something 
must be done at once to meet the emergency. It will amount to 
nothing to consult her husband, so she must decide for herself. 
After a little reflection, she determines what to do. Taking "two 
hundred loaves, and two bottles of wine, and five sheep ready 
dressed, and five measures of parched corn, and a hundred 
clusters' of raisins, and two hundred cakes of figs," and having 
commanded her servants to go before, she followed in the direction 

of the wilderness. 

David and his four hundred men were already on the way to 
Nabal's house, nor was he in a pleasant mood. He soliloquized 
with himself as he rode along: "Surely in vain have I kept all 
that this fellow hath in the wilderness, so that nothing was missed 
of all that pertained unto him ; and he hath requited me evil for 
good God do so unto the enemies of David and more also if I 
leave of all that pertained to him, by the morning light, so much 
as one man child." As he looks up from his musings, he sees a 
woman, whom he had never seen before, approaching him with a 
company of servants. When she saw David and his company 
of men, she alighted from the animal on which she rode and fell 
before David and bowed herself to the ground, finally falling at 
his feet and uttering the following impromptu address, one of the 
finest specimens of literature extant : 

"Upon me, my lord, upon me be the iniquity; and let thine 
handmaid, I prav thee, speak in thine ears, and hear thou the 
words of thine handmaid. Let not my lord, I pray thee, regard 



'Abigail — the Superior Wife 245 

this man of Belial, even Nabal for as his name is, so is he; Fool 
is his name, and folly is with him ; but I thine handmaid saw not 
the young men of my lord, whom thou didst send. Now therefore, 
my lord, as the Lord liveth, and as thy soul liveth, seeing the Lord 
hath withholden thee from bloodguiltiness, and from avenging 
thyself with thy own hand, now, there, let thine enemies, and those 
that seek evil to my lord, be as Nabal. . . . Forgive, I pray 
thee, the trespass of thine handmaid : for the Lord will certainly 
make my lord a sure house ; because my lord fighteth the battles 
of the Lord, and evil shall not be found in thee all thy days. And 
though man be risen up to pursue and to seek thy soul, yet the 
soul of my lord shall be bound in the bundle of life with the Lord 
thy God ; and the souls of thine enemies, these shall he sling out 
as from the hollow of a sling. And it shall come to pass, when 
the Lord shall have done to my lord according to all the good 
that he hath spoken concerning thee, and shall have appointed thee 
ruler over Israel, that this shall be no grief unto thee nor offence 
of heart unto my lord, either that thou hast shed blood causeless, 
or that my lord hath avenged himself : but when the Lord shall 
have dealt well with my lord, then remember thine handmaid." 

In all this address she speaks as a thoughtful, pious, shrewd 
woman should speak. There is not a word of fulsome flattery in 
it. In the future he will be pleased to remember he did not shed 
causeless blood. The woman throughout is dignified, prudent, 
discreet. Everything about the address indicates a breadth of 
thought, an elevation of language, a comprehension of the pro- 
prieties of the occasion, which mark her as a woman of more than 
average mental and moral worth, and infinitely superior in every 
way to the ignorance and boorishness of her drunken husband. 

"Abigail appears as an agent of the spirit of God, and the 
prophetic spirit breathes through her words. She speaks to David 
in the manner of the prophet. She sees clearly and declares to 
David with vigorous, heart-searching and conscience-piercing 
words that his high-handed, revengeful purpose is against God's 
law and order. She convinces him of his deep guilt, and brings 
him to acknowledge that she is God's instrument to save him f rqm 
a wicked deed which would have cast a dark shadow over his 
future life. She announces his future royal calling and his lofty 
mission therein as hero to wage the wars of the ^ord against the 



246 Women of the Bible 

enemies of God's people, earnestly exhorts him to walk conform- 
ably to the glory and holiness of the calling, predicts under this 
condition the continuance of the royal dignity in his house, and 
promises him the rich blessings of the favor of God. Thus, in her 
is presented the type of the guardian's watch-office of prophecy in 
relation to the royal office. Abigail can so speak only as moved or 
filled by the prophetic spirit; and the means thereto were her 
personal relations to the prophetic circles, whose center Samuel 
was till his death, and to which all true, God-fearing persons at- 
tached themselves. As the prophetic community was at this time 
of great importance for awakening and cherishing a new religious 
life in the people, it cannot be surprising if we meet with person- 
ages like Abigail among the people, filled and illuminated with 
the prophetic spirit." 

Her mission is a successful one. Her beauty, her good sense, 
and her kindness of heart have disarmed the warrior, and his 
sword falls by his side. His passion is allayed and he remembers 
he is the anointed of God to care for his people and not to destroy 
them. Gratified that he has been prevented from shedding cause- 
less blood, he exclaims : "Blessed be the Lord thy God which hath 
sent thee to me this day, . % . . and blessed be thou, which hast 
kept me from shedding blood." David received at her hand the 
present she had brought, with which she had purchased the life 
of her husband and her household. He says to her further, "Go 
up in peace to thy house : see, I have hearkened to thy voice and 
have accepted thy person." She has saved her husband and his 
property, and when she returns to report the success of her mis- 
sion, she finds her lord shamefully drunk and in no condition to 
hear of the wonderful success which his superior has achieved. 
In the morning hour, when the "wine was gone out" and the 
drunken stupor was over, she told of the fearful danger that 
awaited him and how it had been averted. He seems to have some 
little conception of how grandly he had played the fool and nearly 
destroyed his own life as well as the lives of his household, but 
there escaped from him no word of thankfulness to the faithful 
wife who had secured his escape from impending peril. "His 
heart died within him and he became as a stone." Most likely 
a stroke of paralysis or apoplexy had fallen upon him. < This 
seems to be onlv a temporary recoil of feeling from which he 



Abigail — the Superior Wife 247 

afterward partially recovered. We do not know, however, that 
there was any true amendment of life. This appears to have been 
the exciting cause of some malady which finally carried him off, 
for we are told that "about ten days after, the Lord smote Nabal 
that he died." 

In the midst of his wealth, he was compelled to lay down his 
life, unwept, most likely, by friend or relation. So far as we 
know, he died as he had lived, a son of Belial. The wife is now 
free from the dead body she has so long carried. Death is the 
great divorcer, and daily relieves men and women of heavy bur- 
dens. He comes at times as a great blessing. Did this woman 
lament for this man? How could she realize the feelings which 
come to those who in such an hour are conscious of a great loss ? 
'Though the noble Abigail, whose married life had been one con- 
tinued scene of unhappiness, could but shed tears over the un- 
timely fate of her brutal, drunken husband, who was so poorly 
prepared for the fearful realities of the eternal world, how could 
she sincerely lament the stroke that separated her from an inferior, 
churlish man whom she did endure but could not love ? As well 
might the prisoner lament the decree that opens his prison doors, 
or the oppressed lament the blow that breaks the tyrant sway, or 
the crushed slave lament the stroke that shivers his fetters and 
lets him go forth to breathe the air of freedom." 

And yet, unpleasant as he must have been, so far as the record 
is concerned we find that she did all for him that she could have 
done, had he been the right kind of husband. When the servant 
reports how badly he had insulted David's men and the danger 
that was impending because of it, she could not deny the justness 
of the accusation, so she says nothing. She puts forth every 
energy of her nature to save her husband's life and property, 
although the destruction of that life would have lifted a great bur- 
den. In her meeting with David, she confessed he was a foolish 
man and he alone was to blame, but all this was done to save his 
life. When she returns home to report to him of her success, he 
is in a drunken stupor and not able to comprehend it. When 'she 
finally makes report to him, there are no sharp thrusts, no biting 
sarcasms, no expression of indignant feelings, which the man so 
richly deserved. Everywhere she appears as the faithful, patient, 
suffering, devoted wife. Her pleading before David with earnest 



248 Women of the Bible 

heart and modest, dignified bearing, and her appearance before her 
cowardly husband after his night's debauch, would each be a 
fitting scene for the brush of a painter; and yet, so far as we re- 
member, while other women have had special prominence, for 
some reason this one appears to have been neglected. David had 
married Saul's daughter Michal, who had been given him in place 
of Merah, the one promised. When the rupture between Saul and 
David had become open, she was taken from him by her father 
and given to another man. He had before this time married 
Ahinoam of Jezreel. The impression made upon David by the 
beauty and good sense of Abigail when she came to meet him, was 
a permanent one. Some time after the death of Nabal, he sends 
his servant to make an offer of marriage to this wealthy widow. 
When David's wish was made known to her, she responded, 
"Behold thine handmaid is a servant to wash the feet of the 
servants of my lord." Taking with her her five female servants 
who usually accompanied her, she went after the messengers of 
David and became his wife. In addition to her own person, she 
brought him no little money, for she was rich. How much she 
influenced his after life, we are not able to tell. Up to this date, 
he is an outlaw with no fixed residence. It is not long until he 
takes up his residence at Hebron. She accompanied him in all 
his future fortunes. She was with him when he joined Achish 
at Gath. When the Amalekites attacked Ziklag, they carried off 
his wives, and David was greatly disturbed. With four hundred 
men he pursued after them, recaptured his wives, and secured 
all that had been taken away. After Saul's death he removes to 
Hebron, where he was anointed king of Judah, and these wives 
are with him there. By Abigail, he had one son named Chileah. 
We know nothing further of the particulars of this woman's life, 
nor when nor where she died. 

"She doeth little kindnesses 

Which most leave undone, or despise; 

For naught that sets one heart at ease 

And giveth happiness or peace 
Is low esteemed in her eyes. 

"She hath no scorn of common things; and, 

Though she seem of other birth, 
Round us her heart entwines and clings 
And patiently she folds her wings 

To tread the humble paths of earth. 



Abigail — the Superior Wife 249 

"Blessing she is; God made her so; 
^ And deeds of week-day holiness 
Fall from her noiseless as the snow; 
Nor hath she ever chanced to know 
That aught were easier than to bless. 

"She is most fair and thereunto 

Her life doth rightly harmonize; 
Feeling or thought that was not true 
Ne'er made less beautiful the blue 
Unclouded heaven of her eyes. 

"She is a woman — one in whom 

The springtime of her childish years 
Hath never lost its fresh perfume, 
Though knowing well that life hath room 
For many blights and many fears." 

— Lowell. 



ftfje <©ueen of g>foba~- 

t&e »tee Woman 



"The queen of the south shall rise up in the judgment with this genera- 
tion and shall condemn it: for she came from the uttermost parts of the 
earth to hear the wisdom of Solomon; and, behold, a greater than Solomon 
is here." —Jesus. 



tK&e <©ueen of g>fjefca— tfje Wtee Woman 



WHEN the scholarly scribes and the hypocritical Pharisees 
said to Christ, "We would see a sign from thee," he an- 
swered them by saying, "The queen of the south shall 
rise up in the judgment with this generation, and shall condemn 
it : for she came from the uttermost parts of the earth to hear the 
wisdom of Solomon ; and, behold, a greater than Solomon is here" 
(Matthew 12: 42). Elsewhere she is referred to as the Queen of 
Sheba. Arabian tradition names her Balkis., but we have no more 
definite knowledge of her name than this. While the names given 
to the Hebrews were especially significant, it is a fact that the 
names of some of the most remarkable women of the Bible have 
not been given us. We are to remember "Lot's wife," and mention 
is made in not very commendable terms of "Job's wife," but the 
name of neither is known. We are also introduced to the "woman 
of Shunem," the "widow of Sarepta," and "Jephthah's daughter." 
As she is supposed to have come from Arabia, the Arabian 
traditions would find a place for her name and fame in their 
literature. They say that before she went to see Solomon she sent 
ambassadors with a letter to Solomon; that with these she sent 
five hundred youths dressed like maidens and the same number of 
maidens dressed as young men, with instruction they were to 
behave in the presence of Solomon as their dress would indicate. 
She had a thousand carpets prepared inwrought with gold and 
silver, a crown composed of the finest pearls and hyacinths, and 
many loads of amber, musk, alloes, and other products of her 
country. To these she added a casket, and in it was an imperfo- 
rated pearl, a diamond intricately pierced, and a goblet of crystal. 
In this letter she writes : "As a true profit thou wilt no doubt be 
able to distinguish the youths from the maidens; to divine the 
contents of the enclosed casket ; to perforate the pearl ; to thread 
the diamond; and to fill the goblet with water that hath not 
dropped from the clouds nor gushed from the earth." 

The story is further told in their traditions that when they 
reached Jerusalem, "Solomon told them the contents of the letter 



254 Women of the Bible 

before they presented it, and made light of their mighty problems. 
He caused the slaves to wash themselves and from the manner in 
which they applied the water detected their sex. He directed a 
young and fiery horse to be ridden through the camp at the top of 
its speed and on its return caused its copious perspiration to be 
collected in the goblet. The pearl he perforated by a stone occultly 
known to him. The threading of the diamond puzzled him for a 
moment, but at length he inserted a small worm which wound its 
way through leaving a silken thread behind it. Having done this, 
he dismissed the ambassadors without accepting their presents." 
This, with other reports brought to her, determined the queen to 
visit the king in person. 

She is called the queen of Sheba. This country is generally 
understood to have been situated in the southwestern part of 
Asia between the Indian Ocean and the Red Sea. The early 
geographers divided this whole land into Happy and Desert. 
Arabia ; after the city of Petra had become prominent, there was a 
third division made, commonly but improperly called Stony 
Arabia. The name "Happy" by some has been thought to be due 
to the richness and variety of the natural productions of this part 
as compared with the lack in other parts. Others think-it comes 
from the Arabic name Yemen, which, though denoting the land of 
the right hand or south, has for a secondary meaning the sense of 
the "happy, prosperous." This embraces the greater portion of 
the country known to us as Arabia. The modern Yemen is espe- 
cially productive and at the same time, from its mountainous char- 
acter, picturesque. "The settled regions of the interior appear to 
be more fertile than is generally believed to be the case ; and the 
deserts afford pasturage after the rains. The principal products 
of the soil are date-palms, tamarind trees, vines, fig trees, tama- 
risks, acacias, the banana, and a great variety of thorny shrubs 
which, with others, afford pasture for the camels ; the chief kind 
of pulse and cereals, coffee, spices, drugs and resins, cotton, and 

sugar." 

The Yemen country originally embraced the most fertile dis- 
tricts of Arabia and especially the frankincense and the spice 
country. At present it is limited to the territory bounded by the 
Hejaz on the north, Hadramaut on the east, with the seaboard or 
the Red Sea and Indian Ocean. Its original limits were much 



The Queen of Sheba — the Wise Woman 255 

more extensive. According to Arabian tradition, this country was 
settled by Joktan, the second son of Eber, Shem's great-grandson.' 
Seba was the name of the most important city and generally of the 
country and nation. Near the city was a famous dike to store 
water for the inhabitants of the place and to arrest the descent of 
the mountain torrents. The classics are agreed in ascribing to the 
Sabaei the chief riches, the best territory, and the greatest num- 
bers of the four principal peoples of the Arabs. The hills of this 
country now are, and doubtless were then, cultivated to their tops 
in terraces and by means of artificial reservoirs. "The vaHeys and 
water courses are exceedingly luxuriant; the adjacent seas are 
filled with superb shells; and the Persian gulf on the one hand 
furnishes the finest pearls, the Red Sea on the other the most 
beautiful corals of the world." 

Milton, in his picture of Paradise, had this country in view 
when he wrote : 

"To those who sail 
Beyond the Cape of Hope, and now are past 
Mozambique, off at sea, northeast winds blow 
Sabean odors from the spicy shore 
Of Araby, the blest." 

And this same land is described in Lalla Rookh : 

"Glistening shells of every dye 
Upon the margin of the Red Sea lie. 
Each brilliant bird that wings the air is seen; 
Gay, sparkling loories, such as gleam between 
The crimson blossoms of the coral tree, 
In the warm isles of India's sunny sea ; 
And those that under Araby's soft sun 
Build their high nest of budding crimson, 
In short, all rare and beauteous things that fly 
Through the pure element, here calmly lie 
Sleeping on light." 

The author of the Book of Chronicles tells us that "all the 
kings of the earth sought the presence of Solomon to hear his 
wisdom that God had put in his heart." In the olden time men 
made long journeys in search of wisdom. To some extent, this 
is done to-day, but for the most part with our varied means of 
communication, the great multiplicity of books and periodicals, 



256 Women of the Bible 

we may obtain a very extensive knowledge of men and things 
about our own firesides. And yet wherever you go, you find the 
ever-present traveler. The writer once surprised one of the inhab- 
itants of Palestine, who was piloting him through that country, 
by the statement that he was there to gather information. To have 
come for religious purposes as the Mohammedan goes to Mecca 
would have been perfectly intelligible, but to be there in the pur- 
suit of knowledge or pleasure seemed to be a very insufficient 
reason for traveling. In ordinary times the acquirements of a 
Jewish king would not have excited much inquiry, and more than 
likely would not have been heard of beyond the boundaries of his 
own territory. But this was a remarkable king and he ruled over 
a wonderful people. They had formerly journeyed through a 
portion of Arabia on their way to their present home. Wonderful 
conquests had been made, the report of which no doubt had gone 
out among the neighboring nations. Remarkable buildings had 
been constructed, an extensive commerce had been entered upon, 
and their vessels floated upon many waters. Solomon's matri- 
monial alliances with foreign nations, consummated no doubt with 
a view to extend his influence, would contribute no little to awaken 
a desire on the part of many to see and converse with him. Some 
would come possibly to see the wonderful structures that had been 
erected ; others perhaps to listen to his words of wisdom and learn 
how to rule more wisely their own peoples. These persons, com- 
ing now and again with their concourse of servants, their gilded 
trappings, their large gifts, as was the custom of the age, would 
make no little stir in the city of Jerusalem, and cause the people 
to be not a little vain of their king who attracted such distinguished 
people with their retinues to their capital. 

The sacred records give us an account of one of these remark- 
able visits. The fleet of Solomon, on its way out to Ophir, or 
maybe on the homeward trip, had no doubt put in at some of the 
queen's ports. These visits brought to her ears the rumor of a 
king who knew more than any other. She concludes she must see 
this man and seek from him information to settle some of the 
problems of life. These men from the vessels may have been 
summoned into the presence of the queen, and at her invitation 
have told her of the wisdom and glory of their monarch. As these 
Hebrews were a religious people, they may have brought with 



The Queen of Sheba—the Wise Woman 257 

them some of their religious writing for this woman to examine, 
for when she comes before Solomon she does not seem to be 
ignorant of the God he worships. "When the queen of Sheba 
heard of the fame of Solomon, concerning the name of the Lord, 
she came to prove him with hard questions/' It is possible that a 
woman of her reflection and energy of character was dissatisfied 
with the religion of her ancestors. There may have arisen within 
her a longing for something more exalted and comforting than 
"the transmigrations of Hindoo philosophy or the sublimated 
sensualities of an Arabian heaven, could promise." 

To have undertaken such a journey in those days was no little 
thing. It required no small amount of preparation and toil and 
days and nights of weariness before it could be consummated 
Arrangements must be made for her government during her ab- 
sence. Abundance of gold and spices must be gathered to be pre- 
sented as gifts to this wonderful king. Soldiers and servants 
worthy of her rank must be arranged for. She has a journey of 
twelve hundred miles before her. When everything is ready the 
journey is commenced, and, either borne in a sedan, or throned on 
a camel, or mounted on an Arab horse, she starts forward "Sixty 
nights her pavilion was to be pitched, and sixty mornings thev 
struck again before she reaches her destination." Long months 
may elapse before she will look into the faces of her cabinet 
counselors or see her people again. 

There is no account of the march given, but we know what the 
usual traveled route was and what hers must have been "Her 
course first lay between the Red Sea and the Porphyry Mountains 
The first city she met was what is now called Mecca, where there 
then stood a pagan temple with three hundred and sixty images 
now of course, a Mohammedan sanctuary. Then she passed the 
burning springs which are surrounded by perpetual vegetation 
I he second city passed is what is called Medina, where is now the 
tomb of Mahomet with its four hundred columns and three hun- 
dred lamps which are kept constantly burning. A few days' 
travel beyond that brought her in view of Mount Horeb and Sinai 
\V ith awe she must have looked upon this desolation ; for tradi- 
tions of the awful scenes enacted there, embellished with all the 
copiousness of a luxuriant Oriental fancv, doubtless had reached 
her ears and invested them with an indefinable strange mysterious- 



258 Women of the Bible 

ness. Next arose before her the hills of Arabia, beyond which she 
entered the barren desert ; and traversing its sandy waste she came 
to the Dead Sea, in whose waveless bosom cities lie entombed. 
Then fording the ever-flowing Jordan she entered into Canaan; 
and inasmuch as southern caravans always went northward in the 
spring, Judea must have looked surpassingly beautiful in its 
spring-tide luxuriance ; for the winter was past and gone, flowers 
and singing birds appeared, the voice of the turtle dove was heard 
in the land, the fig tree was putting forth its green figs and the 
vines their tender grapes, perfuming the air. Then directing her 
course toward Jerusalem, she came to the Mount of Olives, upon 
whose sacred height a thousand years afterward our Savior wept 
over a degenerate nation, and passed over the same road he so 
often traveled on his way to Bethany. She reached the summit 
where far-famed, hill-throned Jerusalem burst upon her eager 

gaze." 

It is possible that Solomon, knowing of her approach and 
realizing the high compliment paid him by such a visit, went forth 
to meet her with the cordiality and splendor befitting such a queen 
and such a monarch, and escorted her into the city. She had 
brought with her a "very great train with camels that bear spices 
and very much gold and precious stones." She came herself as 
an honest, earnest inquirer. She had learned that here was a man 
of marvelous wisdom and abundant in all his resources. She felt 
very sure there were questions he could not answer. She did not 
come unprepared, for no doubt there were perplexities, inquiries, 
and doubts which to her had never been satisfactorily solved. We 
all have them. How much we would give if certain doubts could 
be cleared awav, if our conjectures could be verified, and our 
minds forever set at ease. Precisely what she desired to know, 
is not revealed. We are very sure there were no flippant ques- 
tions asked. She had not come this long distance simply to gratify 
her curiosity. It is said of her that she came "to see the wisdom 
of Solomon." It may not have been simply the worldly wisdom 
which he could manifest, although that would have been keenly 
appreciated by one who was herself a woman of exalted attain- 
ments. May it not have been that wisdom which Solomon himself 
characterized in these words : "Happy is the man that findeth 
wisdom and the man that getteth understanding ; the merchandise 




o 
o 

i-T 
O 

CO 

W 
« 

c 
w 



w 

CO 

r_ 

O 

w 
a 



The Queen of Sheba—the Wise Woman 259 

of it is better than the merchandise of silver and the gain thereof 
than fine gold. She is more precious than rubies, and all the 
things thou canst desire are not to be compared unto her"? 
When she "heard of the fame of Solomon concerning the name of 
the Lord, she came to him with hard questions." May her main 
purpose, therefore, not have been a religious one? May her 
relation to the Hebrew people not have been such that she was 
dissatisfied with the teachings of heathen philosophy, and was in 
search of something which could satisfy the cravings of a human 
soul ? 

If she inquired concerning the "name of the Lord," then no 
doubt she learned, maybe for the first time, how her first parents 
went astray and how a Savior was promised them who should 
save the world. The patriarchs had taught the people and kept 
alive this hope which was to redeem Israel. In due time, a nation 
was born, and through that nation a Deliverer was to come The 
temple was to be a place in which the daily sacrifices would con- 
stantly remind the people of a Messiah who was to appear and 
who did appear one thousand years from that date. She may 
also have learned something of her own blood-relationship with 
this people from whom the Messiah was to appear. 

There is no doubt but that she would be interested alono- other 
lines; and as she had come from the land of perfume and flowers 
he would speak to her "of trees from the cedar that is in Lebanon' 
even unto the hyssop that springeth out of the wall." In addition 
to this, he might also have spoken "of beasts and of fowl and 
creeping things and of fishes," concerning all of which he was well 
informed. There may have been regular scientific descriptions 
oi what was known on these various subjects in his dav It is 
more than likely, however, that they were such concise observa- 
tions as a thoughtful, discerning man would gather up durin- his 
eventful life. "The Jews have a notion that a considerable "por- 
tion of Solomon's observations of this kind are preserved in the 
works of Aristotle, to whom, according to them, his great pupil 
Alexander sent a copy of Solomon's writings which he met with in 
the East. 

We are told further in connection with this man, that in the 
course of his life he had found sufficient leisure to compose three 
thousand proverbs and of songs one thousand and five. We may 



260 Women of the Bible 

have some of them in the Psalms and perhaps in the "song of 
songs" which bears his name. Of his "Proverbs" we have many 
specimens left, and the Book of Ecclesiastes, if properly ascribed 
to him, contains such lessons of practical wisdom and such valu- 
able observations on man's life and nature, as would in part 
account for the wide-spread reputation which he acquired.^ 

"She communed with him of all that was in her heart." She 
no doubt had many an interview during the months she spent in 
the city. Such an earnest, intense, interested questioner would 
call out the very best there was in a man. The orator is eloquent 
when the flashing eye and the bent body show the hearer to be 
wide awake and listening. The teacher is at his best when the 
pupil manifests a desire for knowledge. Here was a heart-to-heart 
communication. There was no asking questions for the sake of 
simplv putting them ; no mere filling in, in order to be polite. It 
was an earnest heart-longing for light, and she had come to the 
fountain which she had heard was able to supply. Nor was she 
disappointed. "There was not any question hid from the king 
which he told her not." She may have propounded to him riddles 
or fables or allegories, as was a common form among the ancients 
of testing the skill of their opponents, but whatever form the 
questions might take, Solomon was ready with an answer. What 
an intellectual treat that must have been ! A cultured queen con- 
verging with a learned king, permitted to ask him any question she 
chooses out of the perplexing and unsolved problems of her life, 
and not a single one goes unanswered. It was worth a month s 
travel and a distance of twelve hundred miles over rough roads to 
enjoy such a privilege as that. 

After such a manifestation as this, she expected to find every- 
thing else in keeping with so exalted a station, and she was not 
disappointed. To supply his table for one day required thirty 
stalled oxen, two hundred fat sheep, besides innumerable deer and 
fowl If such were the ordinary fare, we may imagine what it 
would be on an occasion like this. She saw the two hundred 
targets and three hundred shields and various other vessels all ot 
add She saw the ivory throne with its twelve carved lions the 
thousand chariots and twelve thousand horsemen. With these 
she gazed upon the gardens of spikenard and saffron and 
pomegranates and cinnamon, the "orchards planted with all kinds 



The Queen of Sheba — the Wise Woman 261 

of fruit" and beautiful with "fountains and pools of waters." She 
also saw the massive stone walls built up from the valleys to sup- 
port the temple, some of these immense blocks remaining to this 
day. She beheld Solomon's palace, the most gorgeous in the 
world, the queen's palace, the house of the forest of Lebanon, the 
porch of judgment, all studded with pillars glittering with gold 
and richly adorned with carvings of birds and flowers. She heard 
the singers and the "musical instruments of all sorts." She was 
not admitted to the temple, but saw the ascent by which the kino- 
went up thither ; and possibly through the gates and doors she 
may have seen the brazen sea, and the glory of the Lord filling 
the place. b 

After her eyes for days had witnessed such unspeakable ma- 
nificence, and her ears had listened to such wise sayings such 
pertinent replies, such untold treasures of wisdom, is it Strang 
that tfie inspired writer should say, "There was no more spirit in 
her . She came possibly with a clear idea of the perplexing ques- 
tions she should ask him, and the answers came to her with a flash 
How frank, open, and honest the statement she makes to him "It 
was a true report that I heard in mine own land of thy acts and 
of thy wisdom. Hwbeit I believed not the words, until I came 
and mine eyes had seen it." All of which was very natural Such 
wonderful stories had been told by travelers that she was sure 
they must be exaggerations. The only true way was to come and 
verify the statements if true. And now, after having tested this 
man by the most difficult questions which her ingenious brain 
could devise, she says, "The half was not told me. Thy wisdom 
and thy prosperity exceedeth the fame which I heard " What a 
new world has been opened up to her! How cheerily she will 
now go back and take up the burdens of government ! How much 
richer and fuller and sweeter life will be henceforth ! "Happy are 
thy men happy are these thy servants, which stand continually 
before thee, and hear thy wisdom." If she had been so blessed 
how happy would those be who were constantly in the presence of 
such a man ! To be permitted to hear his conversation even to 
catch a stray word now and then would be a great blessing How 
well they should serve, for they get such gleams of light such 
words of revelation and consolation, as men never heard before' 
She bestowed upon the king rare and costly gifts, "an hundred and 



252 Women of the Bible 

twenty talents of gold [estimated by some to be over $2,000,000] 
a,d of spices a very great store, and precions stones: there came 
no more such abundance of spices as these which the queen of 
Sheba gave to king Solomon." _ 

How long she remained we cannot determine. If she came 
with the merchant caravan she may have remained two months or 
more in Canaan. The time comes when her mission is completed 
and "she turned and went to her own country. She went not out 
empty-handed, however. We may be very certain she lost nothing 
bv her gifts. "King Solomon gave unto the queen of Sheba all 
her delre, whatsoever she asked, besides that which Solomon 
gave her of his royal bounty." In other words, he gave her 
according to the custom of kings, which we are sure would be very 
liberal, and in addition to this gave her everything else she desired 
There is a general belief among the Jewish writers that the 
queen was turned from her dumb idols to worship the living God 
by the instruction which Solomon gave. This is not an ^probable 
supposition. The words which connect the name of the Lord 
with the wisdom of Solomon seemed to suggest such an inference 
and this is reinforced by the words with which she closes her 
a dress to Solomon. "Blessed be Jehovah, thy God, which de- 
Sh ed in thee to set thee on the throne of Israel ; because Jehovah 
loved Israel forever, therefore hath he made thee king to do judg- 
ment and justice." There is additional testimony to this theory in 
the let that a hundred and sixty-seven years before the coming 
of Christ the faithful and pious Maccabees propagated a pure 
relWon more readily in Sheba than elsewhere, and that the people 
he e were morally superior to the rest of the Arabians. That such 
a condition of things should be found centuries after her death 
is a compliment to her earnest life, her good example and efficient 
teaching "It is the crowning praise of this crowned woman that 
n a probability she faithfully discharged the high duties of her 
sphere! benevolently communicated her knowledge to her subjects, 
and fulfilled the mission of her life." ; 

Vis certain that Arabia received Christianity early, but our 
knowledge is limited concerning it. Paul, after bis conversion, 
r ti into Arabia for some two years ; but whether tins time 
wis spent in preaching or in private exercises is not known, ^ nor 
is there any record of the fruits of his labors. There is a trad.- 



The Queen of Sheba — the Wise Woman 263 

tion that other apostles, Peter, Thomas, and Bartholomew, had 
preached there. According to Eusebius, an Arab ruler sent to 
Demetrius, bishop of Alexandria in the beginning of the third 
century, asking for Origen as a teacher. Between the years 
A.D. 247 and 250 a synod was held under the presidency of 
Origen for the consideration of a certain heresy. Among the 
Saracens and Bedaween numerous conversions took place in the 
fifth century. Several important bodies were entirely Christian, 
and one writer reported in the sixth century that he found every- 
where in Arabia Christian churches. When Mohammedanism came 
in, the Christian church had long been established in several parts 
of Arabia, but it had become corrupted, being associated with 
monachism and with the worship of martyrs, relics, and images. 
At this time, a large number of Jews were in Arabia. After the 
destruction of Jerusalem many of these had retired hither, while 
some of them, adopting the fierce manners of the desert, chose 
a wandering life; but in general the Jews were peacefully settled 
in towns and fortified castles, principally along the coast, or dis- 
persed among the inhabitants of large cities. 

With our more modern ideas of woman's supposed unfitness 
for public life, and the tendency on the part of many to keep her 
deprived of all part in the selection of rulers and to confine her 
duties to the sphere of domestic life, it seems a little strange to 
find, at the distance of nearly three thousand years back of us, 
a woman of such ability and culture occupying so prominent a 
sphere. It is asserted, however, and with some show of reason, 
that this was not an accidental thing, but that the superiority of 
the female was an acknowledged fact not only among this people 
but among other nations. "Although in Arabia in the time of the 
prophet, descent was traced in the male line, the evidence is almost 
unlimited, going to show that it was not always so but, on the 
contrary, that at an early age relationships were reckoned through 
women, mothers being the recognized heads of families and tribal 
groups. In his work on Kinship and Marriage in Early Arabia, 
Prof. W. R. Smith says: "If a kinship tribe derives its origin 
from a great father, we may argue with confidence that it had 
been the rule that children were of their father's tribe and kin; 
while, on the other hand, if we found, in a nation organized on the 
principle of unity c* tribal blood, tribes which trace their origin 



264 Women of the Bible 

to a areat mother instead of a great father, we can feel sure that 
It sonle tL the tribe followed the rule that the children belonged 
to the mother and are of her kin. Now among the Arabs the doc 
trine oTthe unity of tribal blood is universal, as appears from he 
univera Prevalence of the blood feud. And yet, among the 
Trab tribes we find no small number that refer the.r origin to a 
female eponym. Hence it follows that, in many parts of Arabia, 
Kip was once reckoned not in the male but a the female .hue. 
From a number of facts, "we are given to understand that ong- 
inX theTwas no rule of reckoning kinship in Arabia except by 
S$£L. and that the change of descent from the female to 
the male line affected society to its very roots. 

The same author further says: "By a careful study of the 
gro^ot government is observed the fact that liberty, fraterm y 
fnd equality were the original and natural inheritance of the 
human fanfilv, and that tyranny, injustice, and oppression are 
ex escences which subsequently fastened themselves upon human 
Situdons through the gradual rise of * = egoisUC prince 
rievelooed in human nature. We have seen that, until the Degin 
nW of the latter status of barbarism, the gens constituted a sov- 
erS power in the tribe; women controlled the gens, and sachem 
and clif were alike invested with the authority necessary for 
leadersS because thev could trace their descent to somefemak 
ancesto who was the acknowledged head of the people and whose 
nflunce and patronage must have extended over a themdiv d- 
, • 1 a^a within the recoo-n zed bond of kinship. W ltn tne 
S^JSSJSSSSS women, and with the precautions 
which were taken by them against injustice or usurpa ion of 
right, H Plain that" unless some unusual or unprecedented «r- 
c fmstances had come into play, they never could have lost hat 
upS,acy which as the natural result of higher organization had 
been maintained since the separation of the sexes, f 

That which especially attracts us to this woman is the strength 
of character which she manifests. We find her in an exalted 
of chaiacter wn ic inheritance rather than of choice, 

ff£&^3*&#* of the diadera she wears> the 



*Gamble's "Evolution of Woman," p. 112. 
-^Gamble's "Evolution of Woman," p. 137. 



The Queen of Sheba — the Wise Woman 265 

royal palace in which she dwells, the number of her subjects, or 
the wealth in her treasury. She finds no fit employment in the 
amusements of the hour, the mazes of the giddy dance or the 
enticements of cards and dice, seeing in these, fitting occupations 
only for those who have nothing else on which to employ their 
thoughts. The chr.rms of fashion and dress which amuse so 
many and help to while away hours that might otherwise hang 
heavily, have no attractions for her. No doubt she has tasted of 
the sweets of Oriental poetry and exhausted the teachings of 
pagan philosophy. The flattery of her courtiers, the well-meant 
praises of her people, and the daily compliments of others, are 
frequently in her ears, but she wants something better than all 
these. These are not fitting food with which to feed an immortal 
soul. How should she best rule her people? How should she 
best live the ideal life? A rumor of a wisdom above that which 
her teachers or her books can give has come to her ears. Hun- 
dreds of miles away among a strange people lives this remarkable 
man. The long distance, the dangers of the journey, through 
desert waste, over intervening mountains, and across bridgeless 
rivers, would have discouraged a woman of less force of character. 
After carefully counting the cost, she starts out upon a journey 
that will take miles of travel and keep her months from home. 
She accomplished her journey and was repaid a thousandfold for 
what she had done and suffered. She returns to her own home 
a different woman, in every way better fitted by the breadth of 
vision which had been vouchsafed to her, to meet the responsi- 
bilities of coming life. 

Our Savior complimented her wisdom, and blamed the Phari- 
sees because they did not manifest as good judgment as did she. 
They were seeking for some marvelous sign, but there were signs 
all about them which their hard hearts did not permit them to 
interpret. The queen "came from the uttermost parts of the 
earth to hear the wisdom of Solomon, and, behold, a greater than 
Solomon is here." He stood in their very midst and talked with 
them and spake such words as never man spake. He answers 
greater questions, distributes greater blessings, and reigns in more 
glorious state. "When he sees Solomon in all his grandeur, sees 
the man who made of the almug tree pillars for the house of the 
Lord and for the king's house, harps also and psalteries for singers, 



2(/-, Women of the Bible 

when he beholds this great Solomon, he takes up a blade of grass 
and plucks a flower of the field and says, 'Even Solomon in all 
his dory was not arrayed like one of these.' " The queen made 
the most of her opportunities and these scribes and Pharisees did 
not She sought the truth and they turned away from it and 
finally crucified the Lord of life. Therefore the "queen of the 
south shall rise up in the judgment with this generation and shall 
condemn it," 



3wM---t\)t 2|eatJ)en <&ueen 



"The alienation from the religious traditions of the nations was complete. 
All that was sacred in the popular feelings was outraged by the settled 
purpose of the crown to extirpate the worship of Jehovah, even unto the 
svmbof of Jeroboam's calves, and establish Phoenician idolatry as the only 
tolerated religion of Israel. This was Jezebel's purpose. Haughty and 
ambitious, looking on the foreign people among whom she had come to 
dwell, with insolent contempt, a fanatic for the religion of her own country 
as was natural in the daughter of a priest, she knew how to make her hus- 
band the passive agent in carrying out her plans. A vast temple to Baal was 
built in Samaria, large enough to contain an immense throng of wor- 
shipers. It stood, apparently, within a great walled enclosure, and rose in 
such strength as to seem like a castle. A huge image of the sun-god 
flanked b? idolatrous symbols, was seen within amidst a blaze of splendour 
reflected from gilded and painted roofs and walls and columns A start . ot 
four hundred and fiftv priests in their vestments ministered at their altars, 
and Ahab himself attended the worship in state presenting rich offerings 
doubtless amidst all the wild excitement and license which marked the 
service of Baal." _^ Cunningham Geikie, in "Hours with the Bible." 



3Te^ebeI — tfte ^eatfjen (Queen 



IN the days of Solomon, there were some commercial relations 
. between his kingdom and that of Tyre and Sidon. After the 
division of the kingdom, the connection was not so close as 
it had been before. The southern kingdom, however, still looked 
to Tyre as a mart for its surplus agricultural products. After the 
division, a tie of a stronger than mere business interest grew up 
between the northern kingdom of Israel and this nation along its 
western border. The kingdom of Syria, in the northeast, was 
becoming stronger and growing a little more aggressive, and the 
Tyrians would feel a special interest in securing the king of Israel 
in possession of the territory which alone separated them from a 
dangerous neighbor. This neighbor had already wrested from 
Omri, the father of Ahab, a portion of his territory. The tendency, 
therefore, was to draw the two courts of Tyre and Israel more 
closely together, the friendship of the one being desirable to the 
other. In order to make this union the stronger, a marriage was 
arranged between Ahab, the son and heir in Israel, and Jezebel, 
the daughter of the king of Tyre.. The father must have known 
that the feeble character of his son, when brought under the 
control and influence of a strong-minded woman, would surely 
affect the religion of his country ; but it is not likely that he cared 
much for that, for he carried out the policy of Jeroboam and in 
the eyes of the Lord his conduct was worse than all the kings 
before him. For the sake of political aggrandizement, a union 
was formed of these two kingdoms, which in every respect resulted 
disastrously. 

Ethbaal, meaning with Baal, that is, enjoying his favor and 
help, was the name of the king who was the father of Jezebel. 
Pie is said to have been at first a priest of Astarte. The worship 
of the two was so closely allied that it is possible that a priest of 
Astarte might have been dedicated also to the service of Baal 
and borne his name. It was natural that this woman, being the 
daughter of a priest of Astarte, should become a zealous promoter 



270 Women of the Bible 

of idolatry. Her baneful influence not only wrecked her own life 
and her husband's and almost destroyed the northern kingdom, 
but extends even to the throne of Judah in the person of her 
daughter Athaliah. Josephus tells us that twenty-one years after 
.the death of Ethbaal, the father of Jezebel, that his granddaughter 
Dido built Carthage and founded that commonwealth; so we can 
judge what sort of spirit animated the female members of this 

roval family. 

' This woman was, of course, taught to believe in and to practice 
the worship of Baal, and that she learned her lesson well and was 
a faithful adherent is shown by her whole after-life. In general, 
we may say that Baal represents the sun, and in connection with 
Astarte, or the moon, was very extensively worshiped by the 
idolatrous nations of western Asia as representing the great gen- 
erative powers of nature, the former as the symbol of the^ active 
and the latter of the passive principles. The symbol of this god, 
as well as the name, varied somewhat in different localities. 'Baal, 
originally worshiped without any image and typified only by 
pointed stone pillars embodying an obscene symbol, was ultimately 
represented in human form, riding on a bull, with bunches of 
grapes and pomegranates in his hands. . . . Alongside of 
this god stood his female counterpart. Her symbol was the rough 
trunk of a tree with some twigs left on it, and this was raised 
alongside the pointed pillars , of her consort^ Sacrifices ^ were 
offered to her in shadowy groves and on artificial mounds.'' 

'This worship, in its most prominent aspect, had indeed 
become a mere formal sanction of impurity. The Mylitta worship 
of Babylon was vile enough, but the hotter blood of the Phoeni- 
cians and the sensuality of the great trading cities carried similar 
abominations to excess. The central idea of the worship of the 
Ashera was lewdness. At the feasts of the goddess and at that 
of the resurrection of Adonis, the high places, the sacred groves, 
the very roads became scenes of universal prostitutions, its gams 
being made over to the temple treasuries. Every temple had be- 
sides, at all times, great bands of women and mutilated men. con- 
secrated to impurity. The Syrian Baal, Hercules, a hermaphrodite 
idol, was worshiped with an exchange of dress by the sexes, the 
men appearing as women, the women wearing men's clothes and 
weapons." 



Jezebel — the Heathen Queen 271 

"Self mutilation was the highest and most acceptable offering 
to Ashtoreth. On- the days when the festival of the Syrian goddess 
is held, a great crowd of priests and many Galli (self-mutilated 
men) and Kaleshim (men consecrated to impurity) take part in 
the rites, cutting their arms and lashing their backs as they circle 
in the altar in wild religious dances amid the din of flutes, cymbals, 
and songs to the god. Carried away by the wild excitement, not 
a few of the spectators lose all self-control and, breaking into 
frenzy, mutilate themselves with a sword bared ready for the 
purpose. These Galli, or self-mutilated men, wandered through 
the country often in bands. In the evening when they reached a 
stopping place, they made up for the bloody chastisements of the 
day by a debauch and, if the opportunity offered, gave themselves 
up to every abomination. . . . What followed further is unfit 
to be told. But so deeply did the revolting heathenism of Phoe- 
nicia taint Israel in after years, that Josiah found numbers of such 
wretched men established in the precincts at the temple of Jeru- 
salem, along with a body of women who openly wove tents for 
the impurities of the worship of Ashera." 

The name Jezebel is probably from the same root as our word 
"Isabel" meaning pure, chaste. What mockery the name would 
suggest on the part of one who accepted and practiced and sought 
to promulgate such a system of debauchery in which she evidently 
must have believed ! "It was with a religion so revolting, alike in 
its impurity and cruelty, that the pure worship of Jehovah had to 
contend, nor can its value to mankind be better realized than by 
the contrast they offered. The struggle between the two was one of 
life and death, for they could not exist together. Nor could any 
spectacle be of loftier interest for the history of our race than 
that which this sustained battle of light and darkness exhibited 
during the centuries after Solomon. Through these ages, the true 
religion continued to attack the foul abominations of heathenism 
with an invincible energy, a tenacious persistency, and an exhaust- 
less enthusiasm, under the most unfavorable circumstances, till it 
not only gained the victory but drove from its midst whatever 
could remind it of the idolatry it abhorred." 

Before the arrival of Jezebel at the capital of the nation, the 
Israelites had not cast off their allegiance to God, but they had 
degraded his worship by partial rites and by an illegal priesthood, 



272 Women of the Bible 

The golden calves which were worshiped were, after all, meant to 
be visible emblems .of an invisible God. No-doubt this woman 
was honest in her profession of her idolatrous faith, and goes to 
work energetically to make it the religion of the nation. She wins 
her husband over to her faith, if indeed he could be said to have 
any faith at all, to such an extent that he practically abdicates, 
and, although he is God's representative, he interposes no obstacles 
to her plans. On the contrary he builds her an ivory temple at 
Samaria and erects thereon a collossal statue of the sun-god. 
Altars were everywhere set up for the worship of her god, sacri- 
fices were offered, and bloody and objectionable rites were per- 
formed by a numerous priesthood. Like so many missionaries, 
these had been imported from her own people for the express 
purpose of establishing the new faith in the new nation. It is said 
that five hundred of these were sustained about the palace at her 
own expense. There is no question but that this was fast becoming 
the court religion, and while many, for policy's sake, would adopt 
it, the vast majority would not oppose it and perhaps would give 
a divided attention to it. 

No doubt the queen and those with her who sympathized with 
Baal worship, were entirely willing that others should worship 
Jehovah if they wished. They were willing to accept Jehovah as 
one God but not their God. He had no claims on them which they 
recognized. But the people of Israel had been thoroughly in- 
structed by their prophets that there was but one God and that, 
having given them this land, he had the exclusive right to their 
worship, from the king down to the lowest subject. So the judg- 
ments of God were denounced on the cities which had established 
this false worship and upon those who engaged in it, and they 
announced the authority by which they made such utterances. 
This would excite a bitter persecution against those who worshiped 
God, and especially against those who were prophets. Their con- 
duct might also be construed as disloyal to the court and to the 
measures which it was promoting. If the prophets believed the 
two religions could not coexist, it was then simply a question as to 
which should succeed, and this strong-willed queen determined 
it should be the faith in which she was brought up. Led by the 
inducements of the royal court, or to escape the results of the 
hostility which the queen was manifesting toward the worshiper^ 



Jezebel — the Heathen Queen 273 

of Jehovah, the nation had practically become a nation of idolaters. 
When she could lay her hands upon the nation's priests, she did 
so and put them to death, save one hundred hid for a' time by 
Cbadiah. The golden calf had been established at two provincial 
towns at the opposite extremities of the kingdom, without any 
temples but simply with emblematic images and altars. But now 
the worship of Baal was centralized in the metropolis, where' a 
temple doubtless of considerable splendor was erected and cere- 
monial services rendered by numerous bodies of priests. Samaria 
could now pride herself on being an ecclesiastical as well as royal 
metropolis, like Jerusalem; and doubtless many not over-wise 
pious persons reckoned that something the realm had hitherto 
wanted was now at last supplied. The queen had succeeded. She 
rules over a nation of idolators! 3 

The nation has taken a wonderful moral stride downward 
Something must be done to save it or it will be wrecked. Sud- 
denly, and almost as if by magic, a rough, rude-looking, stern man 
irom the mountains, whom God had been preparing for his mis- 
sion, appears in the king's presence and gives him a simple plain 
message. "As the Lord God of Israel liveth, there shall not be 
dew nor rain these years, according to my word." This is all, and 
the man suddenly disappears. Three long years of want' and 
famine and suffering have come and gone, and the man stands 
before this same king again. "Art thou he that troublest Israel ?" 
inquires the king, who had been for these many months sending 
his cattle up and down the land to find water to drink. This is 
no time for polite phrases nor for words of double meaning The 
prophet, true to the facts, replies, "I have not troubled Israel, but 
thou and thy father's house, in that ye have forsaken the com- 
mandments of the Lord and thou hast followed Baalim." Elijah 
is here for a purpose and proceeds with his work. The king was 
authorized to gather Israel together, with the four hundred and 
fifty prophets of Baal and of Asherah four hundred also. They 
assemble in due time on Mount Carmel. He proposes there, in the 
presence of all this assembled multitude, to determine for this 
king and his people who is the true God. A satisfactory test is 
made, and the people, in the exaltation of the hour, cry out. "Jeho- 
vah, he is God!" Elijah commanded that the priests of Baal and 
Asherah be taken and slain, and the indignant people carried out 



274 Women of the Bible 

his command. Ahab could not resist, nor was he the man to set 
himself against such tremendous odds. 

The king is sent home with the promise that there will he 
plenty of rain. When he reaches the palace, the anxious queen no 
doubt desires to know what the day has brought forth, and Ahab 
told her all that had been done" ; all about the proposition to test 
who was the nation's rightful Lord ; the test of the matter by fire, 
to which, of course, the sun-worshipers could not object ; and how 
in the end the astounding decision was in favor of Jehovah and 
against Baal. But he did not stop here. He told her withal how 
he had slain all the prophets of Baal with the sword. How the 
labor of years seemed in that moment to melt away ! At her own 
expense she had kept these men and built up this royal court, and 
now at a single blow her labor of love seems to have been all 
swept away. An ordinary woman would have stood appalled at 
such a condition of things. As she sat down to supper that night, 
how many chairs were empty, not to be ^upiedagam! 
She has no tears to shed now. Her wrath is kindled into fury. 
She may be too excited to lay plans for Elijah's capture or she 
may be more anxious to drive him from the country She will 
show him that she has royal blood in her veins, so she sends a 
messenger to sav to him, "So let the gods do to me and more also 
™ I make not thy life as the life of one of these, by this hour 
to-morrow." Courageous words in such an hour as this! 

Would you believe it?— this prophet became afraid of Jezebel 
and fled for his life ! The man who yesterday stood against eight 
hundred and fifty priests of Baal without flinching standing there 
for God before the idolatrous king and thousands of assembled 
Israel, commanding and advising in ^.destruction of these very 
idolatrous prophets he now receives this message and then flees 
or fis hie! He hardly stopped to look back until he was almos 
one hundred miles from Jezebel, and here he sat down exhausted 
and wished he might die. And this is the prophet of God, sent by 
hta w th divine authority back of him, to beat back the on-coming 
forces of idolatry, and he flees from duty before the threat of a 
wicked woman! Alas for the weakness of human natt >"• " e 
had an appointed post to occupy and a determined dujr to ulfi 
in which his Master would certainly sustain him, and from which 
not even the fear of certain death should have permitted bun 



Jezebel — the Heathen Queen 275 

to flee. Suppose, indeed, he had been absolutely certain that the 
Lord would not interfere, and that to stay was death— how could 
he know but that the Lord's cause might be better promoted and 
his great name be more glorified by his death than by his life? 
From such a man as Elijah we are entitled to make exactions of 
duty, from which commoner men might be excused. In him, of all 
men, we are entitled to look for the martyr spirit; for if not in 
him, in whom in that age was it to be looked for ?" 

We have sometimes wondered what would have been the 
result if this man Elijah had stood manfully at his post. Was not 
this the most fitting time, was he not here for that purpose, to push 
forward the work of reform in this northern kingdom and to 
circumvent the plans of Jezebel ? After the wonderful manifesta- 
tions at Carmel where the queen's priest had been out-generaled 
and humbled and finally destroyed, when the people with a fresh 
zeal and a great shout were ready to follow the new leader, was 
not this the time to reestablish the worship of Jehovah, if need be 
over the dead body of Jezebel, and utterly drive out Baal worship 
from the land ? And yet this man, who faced all these prophets 
on that remarkable day and seemed to have the faith and courage 
of a giant, let pass this splendid opportunity and, when threatened 
by the queen, ran for his life. 

Suppose when he heard this woman's threat, if the path of duty 
did not seem plain to him, that he should have asked Jehovah what 
to do. Suppose that, like Nehemiah of old, he should have asked 
himself, "Shall such a man as I flee? I, who represent Jehovah 
who am a prophet of the Lord, whose life is in his hands and can- 
not be touched without his consent, after this wonderful exhibition 
of his power through me, shall I flee and leave God's cause unsup- 
ported and dishonored? Suppose I should lose my life, as this 
queen threatens, what is my life but the gift of God and to' be used 
for the up-building of his kingdom ?" The venerable Dr. W. S 
Plumer used to say to his theological students, "Young men, if 
you get a good chance to die in the path of duty, why, die ; there 
are many worse things than death." Even at the risk'of his life 
why allow work so dear to his heart and which has commenced 
under such encouraging auspices, to utterly fail ? Alas, it is easier 
to ask such questions than to answer them. It is enough to know 
he was "a man subject to like passions as we are." Possibly a 



276 Women of the Bible 

man of nervous organism, at times capable of unlimited endur- 
ance and yet, after such a strain of protracted excitement, subject 
to terrible mental depression. A man who to-day sees his prayers 
answered before his eyes to his heart's content, and to-morrow is 
too weak to ask God for guidance in the new emergency that has 
come to him. From the human standpoint, it seems to us he made 

a very grave mistake. 

Who can measure the influence of an intelligent, strong-willed, 
bad woman? What wonderful energy, what remarkable inge- 
nuity ' What power over her husband to lead him away from his 
own methods of worship to support and defend those she loved! 
That reform movement on Mount Carmel, commenced under such 
thrilling auspices, would have swept the country, so it seems ; yet 
this one woman, by the inherent energy of her nature, by the love 
of her own religion inwrought from childhood into her very life 
threw herself against it and blocked its progress. Her priests had 
been slaughtered, the people had been arrayed against her her 
husband is inefficient, the very God of heaven, in the person of his 
prophet, is opposing her, and yet she flings herself in the way of 
this reform and hinders it— yea, destroys it— and sends this 
prophet, who all along for some years has been opposing her plans, 
forth as a fleeing fugitive, promising him that if caught there in 
the morning, he shall pay the penalty of his presence with his lite. 
In the face of this consummate courage, this daring energy, we 
think of Milton's Satan : 

"What though the field be lost? 
All is not lost; the unconquerable will 
And studv of revenge, immortal hate. 
And courage never to submit or yield, w 
And what is else, not to be overcome. 

The queen is not yet done with Elijah, nor Elijah with the 
queen To insure peace and escape detection, the prophet makes 
his way into the mountains of Sinai. The Lord, who had sent 
him, whose professed servant he was, meets him by way of a 
questioning rebuke : "What doest thou here, Elijah I sent you 
to fio-ht mv battles among men, and to strengthen the heart and 
faith of my frightened people. What are you doing here in these 
solitudes away from the work I gave you?" Elijah makes reply, 



. Jezebel — the Heathen Queen 2/7 

if not indeed a very satisfactory one. He had been very zealou<= 
for God, but he found the altars pulled down and he the only 
witness left, and his life was sought. The Lord sends him back 
to the work, and to encourage his heart tells him that here and 
there in Israel there were "seven thousand knees which have not 
bowed unto Baal and every mouth which hath not kissed him." 

"^? c \ then ' com P Iain er ; loath thy life no more 
Nor deem thyself upon a desert shore 

Because the rocks the nearer prospect close. 
Yet in fallen Israel are there hearts and eyes 
that day by day in prayer like thine arise; 

Thou knowest them not but their Creator knows 
Oo; to the world return, nor fear to cast 
1 hy bread upon the waters ; sure at last 

In joy to find it after many days." 

The record is silent for a time concerning this woman, but no 
doubt her work of spreading the worship of her own faith and the 
indoctrmmg of her people in the same line went on as usual. Ahab 
was busy defending his kingdom from attacks from the east 
I here soon comes a time, however, when we open a new chapter 
in this woman's life. Although Samaria was the metropolis of 
Ahab s kingdom, he had a palace at Jezreel where he spent a por- 
tion of the year. It was about twenty-five miles north of Samaria 
and on the eastern border of the plain of Esdraelon. It occurred 
to Ahab, one day, that his garden would be greatly improved if 
he would take m an adjoining vineyard. ' It belonged to a man 
named Naboth, and, as became a king, he offered him a price for 
it or to give him another piece of land in exchange for it The 
offer was declined on the ground that he could not and would not 
alienate ground which he had inherited from his fathers He 
seemed to look upon the proposition of the king with a feeling of 
religious horror The alienation of land among the Hebrews 
was forbidden by law. The rights of proprietors could not be 
hghtly evaded. The king was disappointed and displeased at what 
he, no doubt, considered the intense stubbornness of his subject 
but we have no intimation that he hoped to secure by any tyran- 
nical act the land which this man did not want to sell As ex- 
pressing his disappointment, he betook himself to his bed and lav 
with his face to the wall refusing to take food. In this condition 



278 Women of the Bible 

of mind, his wife, full of resources, found him. Maybe this child- 
ish fretfulness was indulged in to awaken her interest and to put 
her fertile brain at work. He had done all that he could do. The 
stronger mind now takes the lead. 

When she learns the cause of his apparently deep distress, she 
exclaims with indignant surprise and with a half -concealed taunt, 
"Dost thou now govern the kingdom of Israel?" It does not look 
much like the work of a king. Put the matter in my hands. 
"Arise, and eat bread, and let thine heart be merry; I will give 
thee the vineyard." He did not know how, possibly he did not 
care how. He knew that her energy and ambition usually accom- 
plished what she undertook. He gave her his signet ring, which 
authorized her to issue in his name any orders she wished. Docu- 
ments were not signed in those days as we do with the hand in 
writing, nor are they indeed in the East to-day, but impressed with 
a seal on which the name had been engraved. She summoned 
a mock court of justice to try this man for blasphemy against God 
and the king. Think of this idolatrous queen, who had led the 
whole nation away from God, now playing the role of a reformer 
and seeking to enforce the law against blasphemy! She hires 
false witnesses who were sons of Belial, "sons of lawlessness," 
who swore falsely concerning this man saying, "Thou didst blas- 
pheme God and the king." This packed jury convicted him as they 
had been instructed to do. They then "carried him forth out of 
the city, and stoned him with stones, that he died." His sons must 
also be put to death in order to make sure of the vineyard. 'To 
add iniquity to the murderers, the mangled bodies were left un- 
buried, the greatest insult that could be paid to the dead. Worse 
still, the prowling dogs and swine of the town were allowed to 
devour them ; and it was noticed that the blood ran into a tank at 
hand which was the common bathing place of the prostitutes of the 
temple of Baal." This man having been put to death ostensibly 
for treason, his property goes to the crown, and thus Ahab secures 
possession. As soon as she learns that Naboth is safely out of the 
way, she reports to her husband to go and take possession of his 
vineyard. "Instead of shrinking with horror from the deed, Ahab 
now that it was done, accepted it with all its consequences by 
hastening to take possession of his blood-stained acquisition, prob- 
ably not without a secret or even declared admiration of his wife's 




h4 
W 

q 



Jezebel — the Heathen Queen 279 

decision of character and hardihood— qualities which inspire such 
souls as his with deep reverence." But for him this was the 
beginning of the end. 

The elders and the nobles who aided in this dreadful murder 
must share in the guilt. "Their whole course presupposes cor- 
ruption in public affairs, a natural consequence of the religious 
confusion which must have entered in during a reign when the 
covenant of God was forsaken. There is no more authentic sign 
of the decay of the kingdom than when law is deliberately debased 
and murder, under the show of right and with deference to the 
usual forms of law, is done by those to whom the duty of public 
justice is entrusted. Deliberate judicial murder is the most infa- 
mous of all and can only take place where absolute ungodliness has 
broken all bounds and a putrefaction has begun. Jezebel would 
never have dared to order such a process had she not known the 
people and regarded them as capable of everything." 

Jezebel here "shows herself in her complete moral depravity 
Her deepest traits were pride and a desire for dominion, to 
gratify which she shrank back from no instrumentality. Under 
the show and pretext of serving her husband and fulfilling his 
wishes, she knew how to govern him and to appropriate to herself 
the royal authority. She wished the king to be considered not as 
a servant but as the representative of Deity. Right and justice 
for the administering of which the monarchy exists, are to her 
mere forms, and she misapplies the legal organs of justice to carry 
out injustice. A religious solemnity must be the cloak of her lust 
of robbery and murder, and the people be deceived by perjured 
witnesses. Jezebel does all this in cold blood and with calm delib- 
eration; yet she congratulates herself upon it, and informs her 
husband of the fact with self-satisfaction as if she had done some- 
thing deserving praise and thanks. This was the royal couple at 
that time, at the head of the people and of the kingdom " 

While Ahab is not quite willing to go the length of wickedness 
which his wife might do, he is still willing to enjoy the profits of 
her illgotten gams. He now has a garden where he may grow all 
the leeks he needs, but he has secured it by the murder of an 
innocent man, a murder which, if he did not instigate, he at least 
consented to. But he had forgotten, as men so readily forget that 
there is a just God who presides over the destinies of nations and 



s 



280 Women of the Bible 

individuals and who will not, who cannot, suffer such grievous 
sins to go unpunished. Calling his chariot, he rode out to view 
the vineyard, now his vineyard by the fine strategy of his unscru- 
pulous and wicked wife, attended by two officers, Jehu and Bid- 
kar, in a second chariot. He takes possession of this spot of earth, 
obtained at the cost of blood, and no doubt is much pleased that 
his grounds have had such a handsome addition. On his way 
home, rejoicing no doubt at his unexpected success, he was met 
in the way by the man whom of all others he was the least desirous 
to see. His long seclusion might have led Ahab to almost forget 
him, or at least to hope that he was dead, but to his dismay he is 
still' alive and ready for duty. He has recovered from the weak- 
ness which sent him a fugitive from Jezebel, and he is now here 
ready to meet her or her wicked husband. "Hast thou found me, 
O mine enemy?" gasped the affrighted king; found me in the very 
act of a great crime ? Must I always be annoyed by such men as 
you constantly crossing my pathway with those awful words of 
Jehovah? Cannot I be let alone for a little time to carry forward 

my own plans? 

The prophet manifests no weakness this time. He is equal to 

the emergency. He responds, "Yes, I have found you, and this is 

the reason I am here. Because thou hast sold thyself to work 

what is evil in the sight of the Lord." The message he delivers 

is a short but emphatic one: "God will cut off thy life and the 

life of thy posterity sparing not a man, and the dogs shall eat 

Jezebel by the wall of Jezreel" The historian then sums up the 

estimate he makes of the character of this man. "But there was 

none like Ahab who did sell himself to work wickedness m the 

sio-ht of the Lord, whom Jezebel his zvife stirred up. He did 

abominably in following idols in all things as the Amonte nations 

whom the Lord drove out of Canaan for their abominations 1 he 

poor king rode back gloomy and alarmed. He rent his clothes 

putting on rough sackcloth and even slept in it, "refusing food and 

bearing himself, for a time at least, with proper contrition and 

because of this the doom which had been foretold to his house 

was postponed for a generation." , 

After the three years of peace, Ahab is tempted to break his 

lea-tie with Benhadad. The town of Ramoth-gilead had not been 

given up to Israel according to agreement. He proposes to Jehosh- 



Jezebel — the Heathen Queen 281 

aphat, his southern neighbor, to come and go with him, and the 
king of Judah made an "affinity with Ahab." Jehoshaphat, who 
was an adherent of Jehovah, would not consent to go on such an 
errand without consulting a prophet. Ahab gathered four hun- 
dred of his prophets, most likely prophets of Baal who had re- 
placed those slain on Carmel. Possibly they were nominally 
prophets of Jehovah, who had been selected from the meanest of 
the people and put into official position. Of course they knew the 
answer Ahab wished, and they gave it to him. "Go up, for God 
will deliver it into thy hands." Jehoshaphat was not favorably 
impressed with this proceeding and desired the prophet of the 
Lord, but Ahab retorted, "I hate him, for he prophesieth evil for 
me." Micaiah is sent for, however, and his prophecy is under- 
stood to mean the destruction of the people. Ahab is vexed and 
commands that this prophet be kept on the coarsest fare "till I 
return in peace." Micaiah responds, "If thou return at all in 
peace, then the Lord hath not spoken by me." We hear no more 
of him. He was a courageous man, swerving not a hair's breadth 
from the line of duty, and it is more than likely he perished in 
prison. Jehoshaphat does not seem entirely satisfied, but Ahab 
and Jezebel are the master minds of the occasion and he yields to 
their solicitations. The march of the allied armies of Judah and 
Israel now begins. Benhadad, desiring to avenge himself on 
Ahab, had given orders to make straight for him in battle and 
kill him or take him alive. He may have had some suspicion that 
Micaiah was telling the truth, so he proposed to Jehoshaphat, "Let 
me go into battle in disguise, but put thou on my robes." When 
the battle gathered about his chariot (supposing him to be Ahab) 
he cried out and his enemies turned away. Ahab, although dis- 
guised, could not escape the arrows of the Almighty. Some un- 
known archer drew his bow at a venture and the arrow struck 
Ahab between the joints of his coat of mail and his breastplate and 
proved his death wound. That the army might not be distracted, 
he had himself supported in his chariot until nightfall, and then 
fell to rise no more. When his death was known, the war virtually 
ended. The corpse, brought back to Samaria, was duly buried 
in the royal tomb. Micaiah had been vindicated, nor had the 
words of Elijah fallen to the ground. The chariot was taken to 
the town pool, the blood dripping from it and from the armor, as 



282 Women of the Bible 

they were being cleansed, and running back into the tank. Such 
a sight was naturally long remembered, and men told their sons 
how the dogs were noticed lickjng up the dead king's blood, and 
how, when the temple courtesans shamelessly bathed in the pool 
the next morning, the waters were still tinged with red." 

Ahaziah, the son of Ahab, succeeded him, but died in two ■ 
years. He fell from his porch through the lattice to the street, 
and was carried to his bed, from which he never arose. Having 
been trained by his mother Jezebel in the worship of Baal, he 
sends to a shrine of Baalzebub, at Ekron in Philistia, forty miles 
southwest of Samaria. Once more the prophet Elijah, by the 
divine appointment, is on the track of this family. He met the 
messengers on their way to Ekron and sent them back to the king 
to tell them, "Thou shalt not come down from thy bed, but shalt 
surely die." When he inquired as to the appearance of the man, 
and when they had given it, he said, "He is Elijah"; and he sent 
fifty men to arrest him, most likely with the purpose of putting 
him to death. At the call of Elijah, fire came down and consumed 
them and also a second company which was sent. The third 
leader begged for his life and Elijah went with him and came 
before Ahaziah, and delivered his message in person; and the 
king died, as the Lord had said. The spirit of persecution was 
still rife against Elijah, but the Lord honored him by taking him 
to himself, and so far as we know neither Jezebel nor her family 
saw him again, but their troubles have not ended. 

The second son, Jehoram, comes to the throne. Jehoshaphat 
also had a son Jehoram who, as a result of the visit to Samaria 
some years before, had married Athaliah, the daughter of Jezebel, 
who inherited the worst qualities of her mother. The influence 
of Jezebel had not only greatly injured and crippled the northern 
nation, but, through her daughter, the baneful example of her 
wickedness had invaded Judah, and this people also must suffer 
the consequence. Turning from the good example of his father, 
Jehoram king of Judah "began to walk in the ways of the king of 
Israel, as did the house of Ahab, and to do that which was evil in 
the sight of Jehovah." Before his translation, Elijah sent him a 
written message (II. Chronicles 21:12-15) admonishing him of 
his bad conduct, and what a dreadful death he should die. It is 
the only instance of which we have any record in which Elijah 



Jezebel — the Heathen Queen 283 

embodied his words in writing. But it did no good. "Athaliah was 
the close counterpart of her mother and was destined to play even 
a more terrible part. The fierce, determined energy, the fanatical 
zeal for Phoenician superstition, the utter unscrupulousness alike 
of heart and conscience, which characterized Jezebel, were as 
marked in her daughter. We see her hand in the opening act of 
her husband's reign. He signalized his accession by the murder of 
his six brothers. Numbers of officials and others supposed to 
favor them shared their fate, that the throne might fear no dis- 
turbance. The mere tool of his wife, he let her have her way in 
promoting idolatry. High places to Baal and Ashtoreth rose in 
the cities of Judah. The worship of Jehovah in the temple was 
still permitted, but heathenism thus favored by the court threat- 
ened to cover the land." 

"Passive under the strong and untamed will of the queen- 
mother Jezebel, Joram (her son), though not himself an idolator 
had, like his father Ahab, allowed her to favor and to promote 
the heathenism she loved. The huge Baal temple built by Ahab 
in Samaria, with its staff of four hundred and fifty white-robed 
priests, was maintained with great splendor. That of Asherah at 
Jezreel with four hundred priests still polluted the land by its rites 
of worship. The vast courts of the Samaritans' temple were 
thronged with worshipers at the high festivals of the god. Phoe- 
nician idolatry was becoming an Israelitish institution. Sacred 
pillars and images glittered on all sides ; that of Baal himself shone 
out from the darkness of the inner holy of holies, half fortress 
half sanctuary, on which it rose awfully aloft. Fifty years had 
passed since the introduction of heathenism, yet the open wor- 
shipers of Baal were still so few, outside the court party in 
Samaria, that all found in the whole kingdom could assemble at 
one time in the temple area. Indifference, however, had spread 
far and wide ; immorality was sapping the national character and 
the future rum of Jehovah worship seemed assured if things 
continued as they were." It was no better in Judah where 
Athaliah controlled. "A temple to Baal had already been built bv 
her tamily, m part from the stones of the temple of Jehovah which 
had been defaced to construct it, and the sacred vessels had been 
taken for the service of the idol. It had its altars, images, and 
staff of clergy under a chief, Mattan, the only priest of Baal 



284 Women of the Bible 

whose name has survived. A heathen clique was supreme alike in 
Jerusalem and Samaria. The moral and political cancer of 
heathenism had invaded the last sanctuary of Jehovah worship. 
Israel had long been tainted; Judah was now in peril. . 
That a woman like Jezebel, a foreigner and a heathen, should 
have held sway in Israel for two reigns, lording it over the church 
as well as the state at the caprice of her imperial will, had become 
intolerable. Religion and even the nation itself must perish if the 
family of Ahab continued to reign." 

The day of doom at last arrives. Joram, king of Israel, having 
received a wound in attempting to recover Ramoth-gilead, returns 
to Jezreel and with him is Ahaziah of Judah. The army has been 
left in charge of Jehu, a man who in his youth had stood high in 
the favor of Ahab. He is now about forty years of age, and the 
second in command. He had ridden in the chariot behind Ahab 
when he went to take possession of Naboth's vineyard, and had 
heard the curse on Ahab and his house. He would never forget 
this scene, and it may have raised some ambitious thoughts in his 
mind. Elijah mav by his manner have intimated in some way that 
this man was to be the instrument of vengeance. At all events, 
this is the man whom the Lord commissioned Elisha to aiiomt 

as king over Israel. 

Not long after Joram's absence, a young prophet, sent by 

Elisha, comes to the camp at Ramoth-gilead. Making his way into 

the house where Jehu was sitting in council with his officers, he 

called him apart and took him into the innermost room in the house 

where they would be alone. Taking out a flask of oil, he poured 

it upon Jehu's head, telling him that God had thereby anointed him 

as king to "cut off the whole house of Ahab," and "that the dogs 

shall eat Jezebel in the portion of Jezreel." Having done his 

work, he at once fled, leaving the house as suddenly as he came, 

while Jehu returned to his company. These men were curious to 

know what this "mad fellow" wanted with their superior officer, 

for they must have known by his garb that he was one of the 

prophets He told them of his anointing, and his words kindled 

their disaffection to a flame. Shouts of loyalty arose from every 

side Throwing their cloaks upon the ground for a carpet, they 

conducted him to the top of the stairs in sight of the army, blew 

their trumpets, and proclaimed "Jehu is king." "It is probable 



Jezebel — the Heathen Queen 285 

that the military men were dissatisfied with the rule of a house so 
completely under the influence of one bad woman, and the errors 
and crimes of which had first and last brought so much discredit 
upon the nation." 

Jehu shows his ability by at once starting for Jezreel, and will 
himself be the first to tell the fated king that his reign is over 
Giving orders that no one should leave the city, he takes with him 
his old companion, Bidkar, with a detachment of troops, and, 
armed with bow and quiver, they set off at their wildest speed for 
Jezreel. It was a ride of more than fifty miles, but he pressed on 
m great haste. Sentinels on the watchtower near the palace saw 
the cloud of dust some miles away, and a messenger is sent to 
learn the news they are bringing. He was ordered to fall behind 
and follow, and he did, as did the second one sent. Learning that 
the driving was that of Jehu and suspecting no treachery, the kino- 
ordered his chariot and went forth to meet him, accompanied by 
King Ahaziah of Judah. No doubt he was expecting some good 
news from Ramoth. As soon as he sees him, the king cries out, 
"Bring you peace?" Jehu answers with an ominous turn of the 
word, "What peace can there be as long as Jezebel act so wickedly 
as she does ?" "From this, it would seem that the fatal predomi- 
nance of the influence of Jezebel in the reign of her son, as well 
as of her husband, was the chief ground of public discontent and 
apprehension." The king saw that his doom had come at last and 
turning to the king of Judah said, "There is treachery, O Aha- 
ziah," and they turned their horses for flight. Jehu did not intend 
to stop at any half-way measures, so "he drew a bow with his full 
strength." It was a fatal shot, and the next moment the king fell" 
out of his chariot dying, close to the very field of Naboth where 
Elijah had said the crime of Ahab should be avenged To stop 
and cast this body into Naboth's ground would require but a mo- 
ment, and thus the word of the Lord was fulfilled. He was to 
cut off the house of Ahab, and he remembered Ahaziah, king of 
Judah, was Ahab's grandson, and he received a mortal wound He 
died at Megiddo, but was carried by his servants in his own chariot 
to Jerusalem, where he was buried in the supulcher of the kings. 

Jezebel was now probably about sixtv years of age She 
may have seen her son's murder from her own palace windows en 
the line of the wall overlooking the plain. At all events s 1 - 



286 Women of the Bible 

would soon learn that her son was slain, her power gone, and the 
destroyer at the palace gates. We hear of no bitter wailing be- 
cause her house has gone down. She did not hide in the recesses 
of the harem, where he had no right to enter. She was the same 
Jezebel she had been for years, courageous, haughty, and impe- 
rious. Her doom was sealed, but those about her should know that 
she feared not but would meet her fate with becoming dignity. 
She ordered her maids to paint her eyes that they might look 
brighter, and to tire her head, possibly to show that even the 
prospect of death did not move her. She placed herself in the 
high latticed window of the tower, and awaited the approach of 
the new king. She knew her fate hung by a slender thread," but 
when this treacherous man, who had been so highly honored by 
all her family, looked up in her face, she returned the glance with 
defiance and cried out, "What came of Zimri who murdered his 
master as thou hast done?" He made no reply to her, but, halting 
as he rode up, said to her attendants, "Are any of you on my 
side?" Two or three of those in the palace, for even here she 
may have had some enemies, saw their future master and re- 
sponded to his look. "Then throw her down," cried Jehu, and the 
words were hardly out of his mouth before she lay broken and 
mangled on the ground, the blood splashing on the walls and the 
horses. Another moment and the wheels of his chariot crashed 
over her, he not pausing to learn if she were entirely dead. "He 
took possession and after a while sat down to refresh himself with 
meat and drink, after that morning's bloody work. The coolness 
of this iron-hearted man is astonishing, but not without a parallel. 
He probably ate with zest, and with as little saddened thought as 
a hunter who had spent the morning in hunting unto death the 
fatted deer. And why not? he would have asked. He had done 
a meritorious duty that day, and who had more right to eat and 
drink in the gladness of an easy conscience? Human sympathy 
and tender-heartedness are not the qualities one looks for in a 
public executioner, and Jehu was an executioner." 

After he had eaten and drunken, he remembered Jezebel again, 
and said to those about him, "Go, see now this cursed woman and 
bring her; for after all she is a king's daughter." The parties 
return with horror to tell him that they could find nothing but the 
skull, feet, and the palms of the hand. The street dogs had eaten 



Jezebel — the Heathen Queen 287 

the rest at the very gates of the palace. Were there none there to 
drive away these dogs as they ruthlessly touched the woman who 
had made the nation tremble and whom they had feared and 
honored ? Were there none in her own household except those 
who took pleasure in such brutal treatment of one of royal blood ? 
It may have been because they feared to do anything which might 
seem to interfere with this savage man who, in the height of his 
ambition, forgets the honor which this familv brought to him in 
his effort to exterminate them. He hears their report, and even 
in this he seems to find pleasure in the fact that the Lord had 
called him to such a dreadful work. "This is the word of the 
Lord, which he spake by the mouth of his servant Elijah the Tish- 
bite saying In the portion of Jezreel shall dogs eat the flesh of 

7 f 1 I ^ t CarCaSS ° f Jezebd Sha11 be as dlm 2 «P° n the face 
Jezebel^ '" P ° rti ° n ° f ^^ ; "° they shaH " 0t Say ' this is 
The half-wild dogs of the East, having no owner and com- 
pelled to depend on their own resources, soon consume the dead 
bodies which are left to their tender mercies. "They have taken 
possession of the entire country, to devour its offal and consume 
the carcass of every dead creature; and though these operations 
are limited to the city, village or hamlet, not omitting the solitary 
farmhouse and flour-mill, yet so keen is their scent that not a mule 
horse, or cattle can perish upon the highway without at least half 
a dozen of these hungry customers immediately appearing on the 
ground, ready to commence operations." Kitto quotes the follow- 
ing concerning a number of Indian pilgrims who were drowned by 
the sinking of a ferry-boat in which they were crossing a river 
Two days after, a spectator says : "On my approaching several of 
these sad vestiges of mortality, I perceived that the flesh had been 
completely devoured from the bones by the Panab dogs, vultures 
and other obscene animals. The only portions of the several 
corpses, I noticed, that remained entire and untouched, were the 
bottoms of the feet and the insides of the hands ; and this extraor- 
dinary circumstance immediately brought to my mind a remarkable 
passage, recorded in the Second Book of Kings, relating to the ■ 
death and ultimate fate of Jezebel, who was, as to her bdy eaten 
of dogs, and nothing remained of her but the palms of her'hands 
and the soles of. her feet. The former narrative may afford a 



288 Women of the BiUe 

corroborative proof of a noted antipathy the dog has to preying 
upon the human hands and feet. Why such should be the case 
remains a mystery." 

"Jezebel was a woman in whom, with the reckless and license- 
less habits of an Oriental queen, were united the fiercest and stern- 
est qualities inherent in the old Semitic race. Her husband, in 
whom generous and gentle feelings were not wanting, was yet of 
a weak and yielding character which soon made him a tool in her 
hands. Even after her death, through the reigns of his sons, her 
presiding spirit was the evil genius of the dynasty. Through her 
daughter Athaliah, a daughter worthy of her mother, her influence 
extended to the rival kingdom. The wild license of her life and 
the magical fascinations of her arts or her character, became a 
proverb in the nation. Round her and from her, in different de- 
grees of nearness, is evolved the awful drama of the most eventful 
crisis of this portion of the Israelitish history/' 

"She was one of those strong, bold, wicked women, who have 
played such important roles in history. She was of the Phoenician 
blood, reared in the luxury and licentiousness of Oriental customs, 
and of a bloody, sensuous idolatry. The Mosaic ritual and the 
Israelitish constitution had been framed to form a barrier to pre- 
serve the people of Israel from the infection of those vices which 
characterized the heathen nations. By Ahab's marriage with this 
woman, the barrier was broken through, and the licentiousness of 
the worship of Baal and Astarte, the freedom of 'manners of the 
Phoenician court, the luxury and sensuality of the heathen nations, 
were imported into Israel. To a woman thus educated, the reli- 
gion, the traditions and customs, which prevailed even in the 
northern kingdom, must have appeared cold, austere, bigoted, nar- 
row, and hateful. It became her aim, therefore, to override and 
break down and destroy all that was peculiar and national in 
Israel, but in so doing she was contravening all that belonged to 
and sustained God's plan for Israel in human history. She braved 
the conflict and reasserted it in her last hour, and she and her 
descendants went down in the catastrophe." 

"Over the few remaining fragments of Jezebel's bones, which 
the dogs had not time or taste to devour, we may well pause a 
while, not to drop any tears over fallen greatness, but to give 
thought to the solemn though tardy retribution which she had so 



Jezebel — the Heathen Queen 289 

long dared the God of heaven to send, and which she had so richly 
deserved. Since the death of Ahab (fourteen vears before) her 
name has not come upon the page of sacred history, but her bale- 
ful power has been felt in Israel, blocking every effort of prophet or 
other good men toward reform, filling Israel again with hundreds 
of Baal's prophets and priests for Jehu to slaughter by wholesale 
even as Elijah had done at the foot of Carmel. We must doubt- 
less ascribe it largely to her, that Elijah's influence on Ahaziah 
(II. Kings 1) was so inappreciable-; that the glorious testimony of 
his ascension fell powerless on the royal court, on Samaria Tez- 
reel, and Bethel ; and that Elisha's long succession of miracles 
turned to so little account as a means of impressing the nation and 
witnessing to the true God in Israel. That she was gifted with 
qualities of a most commanding sort, such as we should pro- 
foundly honor if they were sanctioned by goodness, there is no 
occasion to deny ; but goodness seems to have been utterly foreign 
to her character. She was no less wicked than great, no "less ba*e 
than proud, persistent, and heroic. When it shall be suitable to 
do homage to Satan, we may afford to place on the same roll of 
honor this historic Jezebel." 



ftije g>fmnammtte===tf)e Hmb=f)earte& 



"Oh, doubly-bowed and bruised reed, 
What can I offer in thy need? 

"Oh, heart, twice broken with its grief, 
What words of mine can bring relief ? 

"Oh, soul, o'erwhelmed with woe again, 
How can I sooth thy bitter pain? 

"Abashed and still I stand and see 
Thy sorrow's awful majesty. 

"Onlv dumb silence may convey 
That which my lips can never say. 

"I cannot comfort thee at all ; 
On the great Comforter I call; 

"Praying that he may make thee see 
How near he hath been drawn to thee. 

"For unto man the angel guest 
Still comes through gates of suffering best; 

"And most our Heavenly Father cares 
For whom he smites, not whom he spares. 

"So, to his chastening meekly bow, 
Thou art of his beloved now." 

^—Phoebe Cary. 



Wbt g>Imnammite— tfje &inb=fjearteb 



TTIE little town of Shunem, made memorable by an interest- 
ing incident in the life of Elisha, is said to be located 
about three miles north of Jezreel, some five miles from 
Gilboa, in full view of the sacred spot on Mount Carmel, and 
situated in the midst of the finest cornfields in the world. It was 
the writer's privilege to spend a few hours there on a delightful 
day in the fall of 1881. One of that little company, who after- 
wards wrote an account of the trip, thus speaks of the place and 
its surroundings : 

"It has a delightful location, with a splendid spring, indeed 
several springs, so that here we found orchards of orange and 
lemon trees which were beautiful to look upon. We were quar- 
tered for a while in a lemon orchard thick with trees of splendid 
size. These two were abundantly loaded with fruit. From a 
single tree not less than forty or fifty bushels of lemons might 
have been gathered. The men, women, and children all came out 
of their houses or huts to look at us ; not less than fifty sat around 
on the ground watching us all the time. Some of them were quite 
black, while others were white. A woman who was quite black 
appeared to have the management of the affairs around the garden 
or orchard, and was quite uneasy lest some of our company should 
appropriate her fruit. They all seemed to want some baksheesh 
because we had been in the garden, though nothing had been 
touched except what had been bought and well paid for. There 
are but few ruins here, and the houses are only mud huts with 
holes about three feet high for doors, in and out of which creep 
dirty women and children. Here the armies of the Philistines 
encamped on the slopes of Little Hermon against Saul, whose 
armies lay in Gilboa. ... No one can visit these sites of 
ancient cities and look on these plains and mountains and notice 
their location without being surprised at the marvelous accuracy 
with which they fit into every detail of the Bible record. As I sat 
under the shade of a great lemon tree and read from the Bible 



294 Women of the Bible 

the history of events whose tender love and tragedy had covered 
this plain about Shunem, and these mountains of Gilboa, and 
yonder Carmel, with fadeless memories, I was almost bewildered 
with the accuracy of the Bible statement. Elisha was here about 
one thousand years before Christ was born ; and yet these moun- 
tains and ruins of cities and plains fit to Bible record as your one 
hand fits to the other." 

Samuel founded the "schools of the prophets" to give men a 
better intellectual culture and to fit them for God's ministry. The 
government of these schools rested in the hands of the prophet - 
inspired at the time. When the students at Jericho saw that 
Elijah's spirit rested upon Elisha, they recognized him as their 
head. For some time after the departure of his master, Elisha 
dwells at Jericho, where he sweetens the bitter water of the spring. 
Soon after this, we find him at Bethel on his way to Carmel, and 
while at Bethel he was the instrument of a terrible judgment on 
the scoffers at that place. Not long after this, we hear of him at 
Carmel. He had a residence at Samaria while Jezebel still lived, 
which would indicate that the persecutions on her part were less 
persistent than before. It is possible there was a gathering of the 
sons of the prophets at Carmel for training and study, and that 
Elisha visited them periodically ; or he may have gone there for 
solitude and reflection. This mountain with its many caves was 
a fitting place for quiet and concealment. It would have special 
attraction to saintly men because here was that wonderful visita- 
tion of God through the prophet Elijah whereby the power of 
Baal-worship was broken and God accepted as the nation's deliv- 
erer. For the purposes named above, or possibly to encourage the 
faithful followers of Jehovah, who may have made Carmel a place 
of rendezvous, or because a famous landmark in the nation's 
religious history, Elisha seems to have made frequent if not, 
indeed, regular visits to Carmel. To do this he crosses the plain 
of Jezreel by the village of Shunem. 

Here resided a woman whose name has not been given to us 
but who is termed "a great woman," as did also her husband. She 
must have been a woman of no little social importance in the place 
in which she lived. She was a person of property, who found her 
highest pleasure in the performance of the ordinary duties of 



The Shunaininitc — the Kind-hearted 295 

daily life, and had no ambition for any position which would give 
her special notoriety. True to the instincts of hospitality which 
she had inherited from her race, she constrained the prophet Elisha 
as he passed to and fro on his religious mission to turn in and eat 
with them. As his visits were somewhat regular, it occurred to 
her that it might be more pleasant to him to have a place where he 
would have less interference and more opportunity for worship 
and reflection than he could have amid the cares of the family. 
She calls him a "holy man of God," which is an indication that 
she knew that he was a prophet and that his conduct, so far as 
seen by her, was in keeping with his profession. Out of kindness 
to the man as well as devotion to the God whom he worshiped, 
she said to her husband, "Let us make a little chamber, I pray thee,' 
on the wall ; and let us set for him there a bed, and a table, and a 
stool, and a candlestick ; and it shall be, when he cometh to us, that 
he shall turn in thither." This most likely was a "chamber built 
upon the flat roof of the house, with walls which would be a pro- 
tection against any attacks of the weather and not a lean-to or 
addition on the side of the house." The husband readily consents 
to so fair a proposal, and thus began, so far as known to us, the 
first "prophet's chamber," or preacher's room, in the world, and 
which has been imitated by so many other pious people down to 
our own day. The furnishing of this room seems very modest in 
the light of our present-day luxuries, and yet we have no doubt it 
was a source of great comfort to the tired man as he journeyed 
from place to place, as well as an occasion of great satisfaction to 
the woman whose tender thoughtfulness and warm, kind heart had 
designed it. 

Elisha desires in some way to show his appreciation of the 
kindness which he was regularly receiving from this happy couple, 
and to make some return to them ; but what was there that he could 
do which would be acceptable to her, a wealthy woman ? Gehazi, 
the servant, is authorized to broach the matter to her to see what 
could be done He is instructed to say to her, "Behold, thou hast 
been careful for us, with all this care ; what is to be done for thee? 
wouldst thou be spoken for to the king, or to the captain of the 
host?" Just what king is meant, we cannot positively determine, 
but the question would imply that the prophet stood in great 



296 Women of the Bible 

respect and favor at the court, and that any reasonable request he 
should make would be granted. If it meant Jehu, he would have 
special claims upon him, for he had called him to the kingdom 
and anointed him for the work. Next to the king is the com- 
mander of the army as the most influential and powerful person, 
and who no doubt had within his control positions which would 
be gratifying to an ambitious woman. 

Her answer is a very delicate and at the same time a very 
appreciative one. She is now among her own kindred where she 
has resided for years and with whom she is quite familiar, and has 
no desire to exchange all these for a position at court. In her 
present position she is sure of a quiet, contented, undisturbed life. 
Courts are very uncertain places, and the glory which is present 
to-day has disappeared on the morrow. She desires no change, 
nor is she entertaining him for any hope of reward. She is con- 
tented where she is, and has done this to show respect for a man 
of God. Elisha, on hearing this report, is perplexed to know what 
to do for her, and he inquires of his servant if anything has 
occurred to him whereby they might bless this house. The servant 
replies there is no son in this household, and to be barren was 
looked upon by a Jewish wife as a very great misfortune. If 
anything could" be done whereby this family could have an heir, 
their joy would be complete. 

The prophet summons her to himself and she stands at his 
door. He tells her that about a year from that time she shall 
embrace a son. This was a very strange statement to her, and 
when she considered her own age and that of her husband, it 
seemed an impossibility, and she replied, "Thou man of God, do 
not lie unto thine handmaid; do not excite any deceitful or vain 
hopes in me." The year passes by and she is made happy in the 
possession of a bright and beautiful boy. A new joy had come 
into her heart and a new light into her life. To a Hebrew mother 
children were a very great blessing. To them "children of youth 
are like arrows in the hands of the mighty ; happy is the man that 
hath his quiver full of them." They bring care and anxiety and 
perplexity, but what would the world be without the innocence, the 
good cheer, and the joys of childhood? Hear the poet sing who 
in his own life had tasted of the joys of fatherhood: 



The Shunammiie — the Kind-hearted 297 

"Ah, what would the world be to us 
If the children were no more? 
We should dread the desert behind us 
Worse than the dark before. 

"What the leaves are to the forest 

With light and air and food, 

Ere their sweet and tender juices 

Have been hardened into wood,— 

"That to the world are children; 

Through them it feels the glow 
Of a brighter and sunnier climate 
Than reaches the trunks below. 

"Come to me, oh, ye children, 
And whisper in my ear 
What the birds and the winds are singing 
In your sunny atmosphere. 

"For what are all our contrivings 
And the wisdom of our books, 
When compared with your caresses 
And the gladness of your looks? 

"Ye are better than all the ballads 
That ever were sung or said ; 
For ye are living poems, 

And all the rest are dead." 

How long she enjoyed this happiness, we do not know, but 
there came a time when the child, now well grown and quite a 
youth, went out to his father who was with the reapers in the 
grain field. He was in the open field, exposed to the hot rays of a 
Syrian sun and was suddenly stricken down. "I know by experi- 
ence that this valley glows like a furnace in harvest time." (Land 
and Book.) He was immediately carried to the house and set on 
his mother's knee till noon, and died. She laid him on the bed of 
the "man of God" in the prophet's chamber, shut the door and 
went out, leaving him there. In a sense, he had been to her a gift 
of the prophet. It was with a sad and desolate heart that she 
turned away. Had she never known the joys of motherhood, her 
sorrow would not have been so deep nor her heart so stricken. 
Xo one who has not passed through such an experience can have 
any real conception of the agony of this mother's heart : 



298 Women of the Bible 

"Out of the wild and weary night 
I see the morning softly rise; 
But oh, my lovely, lovely eyes, 
The world is dim without your light. 

"I see the young buds break and start 
To fresher life when frosts are o'er; 
But oh, my rose-red mouth, no more 
Will kiss of yours delight my heart. 

"The worm that knows nor hope nor trust 
Comes forth with glorious wings displayed; 
But oh, my little golden head, 
I see you only in the dust. 

"I hear the calling of the lark 

Despite the cloud, despite the rain; 
But oh, my snow-white hands, in vain 
I search to find you through the dark." 

A ray of light seems to enter the mother's darkened soul. The 
child was the prophet's blessing. She entrusts it back to him by 
placing it on his bed in his room. She will go to him with the full 
confidence that whatever he can do will be done. She asks of her 
husband for one of the young men to go with her to the man of 
God and she will return again. He says to her, "It is neither new 
moon, nor sabbath" — the times no doubt for special religions serv- 
ices. He supposes that in the depth of her affliction she is seeking 
spiritual comfort. She does not open her heart even to him, but 
simply says, "It is well." When all the arrangements have been 
made, she urges the servant to drive rapidly. She may possibly 
have thought that if help came in time the fleeting breath might 
once more be brought back. In a warm climate the body would 
decompose more rapidly, hence; to her mind, if anything be done 
to bring relief it must be done quickly. In due course of time she 
reaches Mount Carmel, and when Elisha saw her coming in such 
great haste, he knew something was wrong; and to show his 
respect for her he sent his servant to salute her, she being some- 
distance away. He was instructed to inquire if it were well with 
herself, well with her husband, and well with her child. She is 
anxious to see the prophet himself, and not caring to be delayed 
with explanations to the servant, she answers it is well. She 
hastens to the prophet, and now, overcome with the grief which 
hitherto she has managed in good part to suppress, she clings to 







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The Shunammite—the Kind-hearted 299 

his feet begging his assistance. The servant, thinking this was an 
orfense to the dignity of his master, sought to prevent i but the 
prophet rebuked him. The Lord had not told hL of he sicknes 
of the daM, hence he had not gone to Shunen, Tn mo her in 
• J" f T " e , f 5 e P eats t0 Wn. what she had said before, imp" th r - 

a'son now n lr Pki T ° f "* cMd, ~ and'did'not demand 
a son , now, however, I am more unhappy than before for it is 
better never to have a child than to have one and lose it " 

hef e^rnwiS wh- ft "** ^ * d ° ? He ^™ sample 
Detore him with which he is more or less familiar. The widow of 

Zarephath, who had been so kind to Elijah, had a son and he died 
She was a w.dow and the last hope that bound her to life was 
gone "The arms which had so often clung caressLriv arotmd 
her, and whose future strength promised to be as a ,t Iff to 
old age are stiff in death, f he "eyes wllch g. stened soWin'lv 
wnen she came near, now know her not TkZ 1,h-u7 g X 

gmleless prattle had made the long da^of ne J£S£:£r 

^ifZZr^otl T m " te , d T ' AkS ' al - that if sS i 
H- ' , X '° ]° cl ° se m d «th the eyes of one whose pious 

thoroughly only fully to our sSctTn %££££$£* 

mecniia, carried it to his own room, and placed it uoon hi* 
m«n..y h« ,«„ „ p ,„„ /„,, J' j^* J« , ™ "'*- 
who reflects that afflictions attended him wherever he we T 



300 Women of the Bible 

brought evil upon this woman with whom I sojourn by slaying her 
son?' This thought was hard to bear. Again he lashes himself 
up to his great purpose which had not crossed the minds of 
man since the beginning of the world, because no man had the 
same degree of faith — the faith to deem it possible that the dead 
might be restored to life at man's urgent prayer. It is done. His 
purpose is taken. The child shall live. Nothing is too hard for 
the Lord. It is as easy for him to give back life as to take it ; and 
he will do this if asked with adequate faith. Elijah felt the true 
mountain-moving faith heaving strong within him, and he gave 
it unrestrained vent. He threw himself upon the corpse, as if in 
the vehement energy of his will to force his own life into it; and 
while he cried with mighty and resistless energy to God, to send 
back to this cold frame the breath he had taken, faith conquered. 
It was adequate and therefore irresistible. The fleeing soul was 
arrested in mid career and sent back to its earthly house. The 
child revived and the mother received her living son from the 
hands of the prophet. 'Now by this / know that thou art a man 
of God, and that the word in thy mouth is truth.' " 

As this remarkable event had occurred not many miles from 
Carmel, no doubt the Shunammite woman had heard of it, and 
when the life had gone out from her own dear boy, the hope 
comes to her that the man of God could do for her what Elijah 
had done for the woman of Zarephath, and so she hurries to his 
side. He is the man who desired a double portion of the spirit of 
Elijah to rest on him. The God who heard Elijah's prayer can 
return this child to his mother also. Elisha's faith grasps the pos- 
sibility. He commands his servant to take his staff, his prophetic 
symbol, and go to Shunem and lay it upon the face of the child. 
Moses waved his rod by means of which he performed his wonders, 
and which to him was the symbol of God's power and strength. By 
turning over his staff to his servant, he thereby commissions him 
to perform a prophetic act in his stead. He must not spend any 
time in needless salutations, for the Oriental methods are very 
elaborate and will waste much of his time. The exhortation to 
haste might have been to satisfy the mother, or with a faint hope 
that possibly the spirit had not yet fled, or if it had it could the 
sooner be reached and be brought back. The staff itself should be 
laid upon the face of the child, because death no doubt had fallen 



The Shunammite—the Kind-hearted 301 

upon him through the head. In the staff itself was no value save 
as it represented prophetic power. The mother refused to leave 
the feet of Elisha, but the servant hastened on his journey as 
commanded and laid the staff on the face of the dead child, but 
there came neither voice nor hearing. It did not seem to have 
any life-giving effect whatever. Some say this was not the fault 
of the servant, "inasmuch as Elisha, although he had given, it is 
true, the external symbol of his prophetical right and power, yet 
he had not considered that this right and power was a special' gift 
of God which he might not freely delegate according to his own 
will, which he could not therefore communicate or transfer to his 
servant without further consideration." 

Dr. Parker has a somewhat similar explanation of Gehazi's 
failure : "Gehazi was at this moment an undeveloped knave and 
what can he do with Elisha's staff or with God's sunlight ? The 
bad man spoils whatever he touches. In the fall of man, every- 
thing of which man has to do must also fall. Virtue perished out 
of Elisha's staff; it became in the grip of Gehazi but a common 
stick. . . . The bad man draws a pall over the morning ; he 
plucks the forbidden fruit, his eyes are opened, and he runs. Find 
him a cave where the sun is not, and you will find him a resting 
place for which his wicked heart is in quest. You cannot tell the 
he, complete the hypocrisy, pluck the interdicted fruit, break all the 
commandments, and then look healthy in the face and smile really 
the smile of the soul. You may distort your features, you may 
pucker up the lineaments of your face as if trying to make a 
smile, but the laughter of the soul, the joy of the spirit, the delight 
of a pure and happy heart are impossible to the bad man. Thus 
we may be coming near to the reason why the staff failed The 
staff is good, the hand that wielded it was bad ; there was no true 
sympathy or connection between the hand and the staff- it was 
only m the hand, it was not in the heart. There was a merely 
physical grasp, there was no moral hold of the symbol of prophetic 
presence and power. Gehazi had already stolen from Naaman and 
already there had gone out from the court of heaven the decree 
which blanched him into a leper, white as snow." 

Elisha evidently sent his staff by his servant with the expecta- 
tion that it would be effectual to raise the dead. This was great 
faith in him, faith almost as strong as any that his great master 



302 Women of the Bible 

exemplified; for Elijah was the first to conceive the great thought 
that even the raising of the dead was not a thing too great for faith 
to ask. Elisha .had that for a precedent, but he was the first to 
think that even his presence was not needful to this effect, that his 
faith might act thus mightily even at a distance by the mere 
instrumentality of his staff. Why not send the mantle, the symbol 
of his spiritual power? "This was deemed of higher price than 
the brocade robes of kings, and the older it grew the more precious 
it became. He would not like to trust this out of his own posses- 
sion ; and in point of fact, the Eastern inheritors of saintly matters 
never do let them go out of their immediate charge on any account 
whatever, and scarcely indeed will allow them to be separated from 
their persons. They even sleep in them." 

Why then, we ask again, did the staff fail ? The most reasonable 
answer seems to be the following: "Elisha did not at first mean 
to go himself to Shunem and for that reason sent his staff to 
supply the lack of his own presence. If he had intended to go 
himself, there would have been no need of sending his staff before- 
hand ; and his haste to do so might have suggested to the ungodly 
a detraction of the miracle in the supposition that he apprehended 
the child would be too dead, before he came himself, to be revived 
at all. But after he had sent away the servant, his observation of 
the uneasiness of the mother — whom he now expected to go home 
satisfied — and her avowed determination not to leave him, which 
was a polite way of pressing him to go in person, induced him to 
alter his purpose and, with the kindness natural to him, to forego 
his own engagements at Carmel in order to satisfy her wishes by 
accompanying her to her forlorn home. It was probably in con- 
sequence of this change of plan that no response was made to the 
first claim of faith by means of the staff. That appeal was in fact 
superseded the moment he resolved to go in person, the Lord thus 
reserving for the personal intercession of his prophet the honor 
of this marvelous deed." 

He starts with the mother and they meet Gehazi returning, who 
informs them the child was not awakened. Elisha enters his own 
chamber, finds the child upon his bed, and he is dead. It was a 
time for him to be alone with God. He had never undertaken such 
a work before. "He went in, therefore, and shut the door upon 
them twain, and prayed unto the Lord." Nothing so readily 



The Shunammite — the Kind-hearted 303 

reaches the arm of Jehovah and thereby controls the universe as 
the effectual prayer of his saints. "The kingdom of heaven suffer- 
eth violence and the violent taketh it by force." A holy boldness 
can almost accomplish impossibilities. "And he went up, and lay 
upon the child, and put his mouth upon his mouth, and' his eyes 
upon his eyes, and his hands upon his hands : and he stretched him- 
self upon the child; and the flesh of the child waxed warm." He 
walked up and down the room, overcome with the emotions which 
looked for and waited for the complete answer to his prayer. Once 
more he stretches himself upon the child, and the latter gave signs 
of returning respiration and opened his eyes. The prophet's faith 
was equal to the occasion and God honored it. He called the 
woman and said to her, "Take up thy son." She came in, fell to 
the floor in token of thanksgiving for the wonderful blessing 
brought to her, took her son and went out. Again is her heart 
rejoiced. 

"The man of God came forth and led the child 
Unto his mother and went on his way; 
And he was there— her beautiful, her own 
Living, and smiling on her— with his arms 
folded about her neck and his warm breath 
Breathing upon her lips, and in her ear 
the music of his gentle voice once more." 

Elisha comes and goes about his prophetic work, and no doubt 
often tarries at this home as he had hitherto done, enjoys the 
association of this family, and witnesses the joy which has again 
come into the household through the recovery of this lost child 
There comes a time when the prophet learns from Jehovah that a 
famine will be brought on the land which will last for seven years 
and he informs this woman advising her to go where she will find 
it most convenient to support herself. It is more than likely that 
her husband, her chief reliance in a time of distress, has died, and 
that she is now a widow. She seems to have chosen the land of the 
Philistines, which was near to her, and because the plain along the 
sea may not have suffered as much as the mountain district This 
incident shows that the prophet had kept in mind her generous 
hospitality to himself and he wished to reciprocate it. The seven 
years have gone and the woman comes back to find that in her 
absence, her grain fields have been occupied by another. In early 



304 Women of the Bible 

times and especially in Oriental countries, kings were a kind 
of patriarchs to their people and much more accessible than in our 
Western world and our later times. The meanest of the subjects, 
if he had a cause of complaint, might approach the king and lay 
his case before him. This woman and her son visit the king to 
pour into his own ear the wrong that has been done them. In 
II. Samuel 14 : 4 we read, "And when the woman of Tekoah spake 
to the king, she fell on her face to the ground, and did obeisance, 
and said, Help, O king." And in II. Kings 6 : 26, we are told 
again, "And as the king of Israel was passing by upon the wall, 
there cried a woman unto him, saying, Help, my lord, O king." 
When the petitioner herself stands before the king, he is in position 
to know the facts in the case. 

Once before she had declined the prophet's intercession before 
the king, but now she was in a position where it would be a value 
to her. The king had witnessed many acts of Elisha, which had 
forced from him a recognition of the prophet's work. But there 
were other things just as remarkable which he had learned by 
public rumor and which he desires to know more about from some 
reliable source. To whom should he so readily apply as to the serv- 
ant who had been with him in his journeys, and who knew the 
most important events of this remarkable life? Among the most 
wonderful of these was the story of the Shunammite woman and 
the raising of her child from the dead. While Gehazi was in the act 
of relating this story, the mother and son appeared before the king 
to claim their property. When the servant saw them, he said to 
the king, "This is the woman of whom I have just been telling 
you, and this is the son whom Elisha raised to life." The woman 
tells her story, and the king was so carried away with her remark- 
able history in connection with the prophet, that for the sake of 
the latter he restored to her the property she had lost, and more 
even than she could have expected, for she received not only her 
land, "but all the fruit of the fields since the day she had left until 



now." 



The lesson of this woman's life is a lesson of hospitality — the 
receiving of strangers into her home and giving them entertain- 
ment. All nations and peoples have practiced this to a greater or 
lesser extent, but it has been more conspicuous with some than 
with others, With the Greeks, it was under the special protection 



The Shunammite — the Kind-hearted 305 

of religion, and one of Jupiter's names indicated that its rights 
were under his guardianship. All guests and poor people were 
special objects of care to the gods. It has been a peculiar charac- 
teristic of Oriental people. When an Arab arrives at a village, he 
dismounts at the house of some one known to him, and says, "I am 
your guest." The host receives the traveler, sets before him his 
supper of bread and milk, and if rich takes care of his horse also. 
If the traveler is not acquainted with any one he alights at any 
place he chooses, fastens his horse, smokes his pipe, and awaits 
until the master bids him welcome and offers him the evening 
meal. In the morning he pursues his journey, making no other 
return than "God be with you." This was made almost necessary 
in early times from the fact that where the population is thinly 
scattered over a wide extent of country and traveling compara- 
tively infrequent, public houses of accommodation would be hard 
to find and yet the traveler needs shelter and support. The 
master of the house may himself want similar kindness, so he is 
promptjx) open his door to the tired wayfarer who may need his 
help. They are not usually over-burdened, for travelers are not 
numerous. When they do come they are full of news, of things 
true and wonderful, which in a sparsely settled country will be 
more than a fair equivalent for all that they have received. 

The Bible records refer to this commendable custom in terms 
of high appreciation. As Abraham sat in his tent door, he saw 
three men approaching, and without waiting for them to ask him, 
"he ran to meet them and bowed himself and asked permission to 
have water brought, and their feet bathed, and some food for their 
bodies, and they should go on their way," and they consented to his 
proposal. WTien they reached Sodom, Lot invites them in to tarry " 
for the night, and to wash their feet, and they shall rise up early 
and go on their way. When they apparently declined, he pressed 
them the more and they entered in and he made them a feast. 
When the servant of Abraham was at the well, Rebekah said to 
him, "We have both straw and provender, and room to lodge in." 
The priest of Midian sends out his daughters to find the man who 
had filled their troughs with water that he may "eat bread with 
them." The Levite is cared for by an old man who says to him, "Let 
all thy wants be upon me, only lodge not in the street." Express 
promise were made for the exercise Q f this grace among the 



306 Women of the Bible 

Jewish people. "If a stranger sojourn with thee in your land, ye 
shall not vex him." "And the stranger and the fatherless and the 
widow which are within thy gates shall come and eat and be satis- 
fied." At their great national festivals, hospitality was liberally 
practiced, as long as the state retained its identity. On these 
occasions no inhabitant of Jerusalem considered his home his own. 
Every house swarmed with strangers, yet this unbounded hospi- 
tality could not furnish accommodations in the house for all who 
stood in need of it, but a large proportion of visitors had to be 
content with such shelter as tents could afford. 

The primitive Christians considered one principal part of their 
duty to consist in showing hospitality to strangers. Peter com- 
mands them "to use hospitality one to another without grudging." 
Paul teaches Timothy that a bishop must be "given to hospitality." 
Titus is instructed to be "a lover of hospitality." On the day of 
Pentecost "neither said any of them that aught of which of the 
things he possessed was his own but he had all things common." 
The early Christians were hospitable to all, but especially to those 
who were of the faith. Believers scarcely ever traveled without 
letters of commendation which procured for them a favorable 
reception wherever the name of Jesus Christ was known. Some 
suppose that two minor Epistles of John were such letters. 
"Amone themselves Christians called each other brethren and this 
fraternal name was no mere empty word. They lived as brothers. 
The kiss with which they greeted each other at the celebration of 
the Holy Supper was no empty form; the church was in reality 
one family, all its members children of one Heavenly Father. Each 
served the other, each prayed for all the rest. They had all things 
in common. The church interested itself first in those of its 
members who needed help in any way, and then it went beyond 
them to embrace in its love those who stood without." 

Hospitality was a duty enjoined during the days of chivalry. 
Says the historian, "Then it was in Great Britain charity of man- 
ners reigned in all ; noble dames and gentle knights placed on the 
top of their castles a helmet as a sign that all good knights and 
worthy ladies traveling that way should enter as freely into their 
castles as if they were their own." Handsome presents were given 
to the guests ; "but the courtesy they learned in those castles was 
above all riches; no spirit of discord or peevishness was ever 



The Shummmite—the Kind-hearted 307 

allowed in these knights toward one another. Their manners 
displayed every kind of friendship and of good will. 
Nothing was small or despicable in the eyes of the knight if it 
comprehended the welfare of the individual; if he in his voyage 
or expedition receive the hospitality of the meanest person, grati- 
tude would never suffer him to consider that person but as a 
noble and generous benefactor; he declared himself forever his 
knight and swore to renounce all the glory that could be proposed 
to him to acquit himself of the debt to defend, protect, and succor 
him in time of need." 

"That phase of hospitality which the example of the Shunam- 
mitc specially emphasizes for us, is that which is to be shown to 
God s prophets, the ministers of the everlasting gospel. These 
are men divinely commissioned to carry his truth to a lost and 
ruined world. From the very necessities of the case they must be 
poor men, for they have no time to make money. They are to-day 
and have been from the very beginning dependent upon others. 
I hose before the days of Elisha, as well as those since, have been 
supported by the gifts of the people. The Levites who specially 
waited upon the services of the sanctuary, were supported by the 
tithes of the people. When Christ came and the new dispensation 
was ushered in, not only was he himself sustained by contributions 
received from others, but he especially instructed his disciples that 
as they went forth they should take neither gold, nor silver nor 
purse, nor script, but their wants should be supplied by the people 
to whom they ministered, for the laborer was worthy of his hire 
and they who preached the !g ospeI should live of the gospel. When 
they were kindly received by the people they should say peace to 
the house, but if turned away, they should shake off the dust of 
their feet against them. The records of the planting of Chris- 
tianity of the early settlement of this land, show.how these men of 
God traveled long distances with scarcely any road, through dense 
torests, with very meager resources, but the children of God wel- 
comed them to their humble log cabins and freely shared with 
them the very best they had. In this manner the truth of God 
reached men and took hold of their hearts, and then arose the 
church to bless the community with its teaching and worship 
whose spire ever pointed upward to a haven of rest for all those 
who were found faithful." 



©ueen Cstfjer-tfje &utttx*iul 

petitioner 



"There is but one inference, one deduction to be drawn from the 
beautiful story of Esther and Mordecai, and that is the rule of God Al- 
mighty on this earth. No matter whether he rules through natural causes 
or supernaturally, still he is the great ultimate power to whom all things 
are subservient/ and all people personally accountable. In the narrative 
before us, his name is not even mentioned; yet how plain his hand! 
Miracles do not more impressively show divine interference, than the 
course things were made to take in the court of Ahasuerus. How signally 
good was made to come out of evil ! If we had no other record of God's 
dealings with man than the Book of Esther, we should know that the 
Almighty controls human affairs. Mordecai and Esther were signal instru- 
ments of his power from first to last ; alike they show his benevolence and 
lovingkindness. The fate of Haman is a crushing demonstration of divine 
judgment. Me was on the threshold of success, and yet in a moment the 
hand of justice smote him. To all mortal calculations, it was morally 
certain that the Jews would be exterminated in the Persian Empire; and 
yet they were saved bv a great deliverance as marked as when the Israel- 
ites escaped the pursuing hosts of Pharaoh. The same almighty Hand 
that led his people through the Red Sea, rescued them from the malignant 
vengeance of a powerful minister. Who turned the heart of a mighty 
monarch to a Jewish maiden and a Jewish captive? ^Who exalted Esther 
to a queenlv rank, and Mordecai to exalted station?" 

— Dr. John Lord. 



<©ueen estfjer— tfte gmcteastful petitioner 



THE Rook of Esther is one of the .most interesting gems in 
Old Testament history. The story is a remarkable illustra- 
tion of God's hand in the guiding and directing of individ- 
uals and of nations. It occurs at a somewhat dark period in Jewish 
history. The chosen people had been led into captivity, and were 
scattered up and down among the nations of the earth,' without a 
temple in which to worship, with their priesthood broken down, 
and their religion, to them, only a bright memory of the past. In 
this scattered and depressed condition, a conspiracy is entered into 
by a haughty man, who is influenced by personal pique to destroy 
this whole nation, and this man is unwittingly aided in his murder- 
ous purpose by the consent of the king. This dreadful massacre is 
prevented by the prudence and courage of a Jewish girl. The 
story reads like a romance, a tale of the Arabian Nights, and yet 
down to our own day the memory of this girl is carefully pre- 
served, showing that the story is not a dream of the imagination 
but a genuine reality. Wherever the Jews are found to-day on 
the fourteenth and fifteenth of Adar, corresponding to our March, 
the feast of Purim is kept, which is to commemorate the preser- 
vation of the Jews from the threatened enmity of Haman As 
introductory to this feast, the Book of Esther is read through 
and whenever the name of Haman is reached, the congregation 
stamp on the floor and cry out, "Let his name be blotted out ■ the 
name of the wicked shall rot."' In the davs of Josephus he 'tells 
'Even now all the Jews that are in the habitable earth keep 
these days as festivals and send portions to one another." 

The king, Ahasuerus, who is here mentioned, is supposed to 
be Xerxes of Herodotus, and the time of this story is before the 
expedition of that monarch against Greece. "The kino- wno 
scourged and fettered the sea ; who beheaded his engineers be- 
cause the elements destroyed their bridge over the Hellespont- 
who so ruthlessly slew the eldest son of Pythius because his 
father besought him to leave him as the sole support of his declin- 



312 Women of the Bible 

ing years ; who dishonored the remains of the valiant Leonidas, 
and beguiled the shame of his defeat by such a curse of sensu- 
ality that he publicly offered a reward for the invention of a 
new pleasure— is just the despot to divorce his queen because she 
would not expose herself to the gaze of drunken revelers ; is just 
the despot to devote a whole people, his subjects, to indiscriminate 
massacre ; and by way of preventing, to restore them the right of 
self-defense and thus to sanction their slaughtering thousands of 

his other subjects." 

It is at the court of such a monarch, proud, vain, ostentatious, 
tyrannical, that the story opens. In the third year of his reign 
he gave to the princes and nobles who came from all parts of his 
vast empire, consisting of one hundred and twenty-seven prov- 
inces, a magnificent feast lasting one hundred and eighty days, 
and this one was followed by one of seven days to the people of 
the capital, and held in the garden of the palace. The precise 
occasion for such a feast is not known. "Some think it was to 
commemorate the dedication of Susa, as one of the royal cap- 
itals. Those who identify the king with Xerxes suppose that we 
have here the festivity in which the king sought after his return, 
to drown in himself and others the keen sense of his disgrace. 
Perhaps the fact that the feast was held in the third year of the 
king's reign may receive an illustration from the customs of 
China, where the three years' mourning for the deceased king 
precludes any public festivity, but on the expiring of which the 
reigning monarch holds a great and sumptuous festival to cele- 
brate his inauguration." 

On the last seven days of the feast, the palace is thrown open 
to the populace of Shushan. We are introduced to the garden 
of the palace, whose couches and tesselated floor are magnificently 
described. "The hangings are white, green, and blue, fastened 
with cords of fine linen and purple, to silver rings and pillars of 
marble." The beds or divans upon which the guests recline, are 
"of gold and silver upon a pavement of red and blue and black 
and white marble." 

"The feast took place, not in the interior of any hall, but out 
of doors in tents erected in one of the courts of the palace, such 
as we may easily fancv existed in front of either the eastern or 
western court of the great central building." There are- still in 



Queen Esther— the Successful Petitioner 313 

existence, ruins of this city composed of hillocks of earth and 
rubbish, covered with broken pieces of brick and colored tile 
lie city is a gloomy wilderness, infested by lions, hyenas, and 
other beasts of prey. Amid the ruins of Perscpolis, 'also a Per- 
sian capital are the foundations and remains of a magnificent 
temple winch would well illustrate the story and give an idea of 
the extraordinary architectural splendor of the palace. "Portals 
still standing bear figures of animals fifteen feet high, closely re- 
sembling the Assyrian bulls of Nineveh. . . The walls are 
more superbly decorated with sculptures, representing colossal 
warriors with spears, gigantic bulls, combats with wild beasts 
processes, and the like. . . . The Great Hall of Xerxes' 
perhaps the largest and most magnificent structure the world has 
ever seen, is computed to have been in rectangular form and to 
have covered about two and one-half acres " 

theS s Pn a J, lla|plific ri occas :°"' and guests be ^" to cr ° wd 

the hall. Royal wine of fine quality, such as Persian kings would 
drink, and m such quantity as would correspond with the wealth 
and grandeur of the king, flowed freely. Golden goblets passed 
from hand to hand. The tables are loaded with luxuries The 
guests, by a courageous and vigorous carousing, are expected 
to show them appreciation of the liberal hospitality of the king, 
and at the same time evince their ability to do something in their 
drinking worthy of the royal table. While this feast of revelry 
this drunken carousal was taking place on the part of the men 
the queen was elsewhere banqueting the women, and thus helpin- 
more and more to bring into view the royal majesty and mag 
mficence of the tang. Usually the queen ate with her husband 
and even m greater feasts was not always excluded. At this time 
she was compelled to remain away, since "she was giving he Tn 

—ems' whH kdieS - T , WS W3S Pr ° babI ^ Z™ in *« °W" 
apartments which were in the royal residence or in some other 

dwelling, placed at her disposal for this festive occasion. To per- 
mit the participation of women in all the feasts of the men would 
certainly not have been desirable, since it was a mixed company 
During six days of the feast the hilarity ran high. On the 
seventh day, when the king and all had well drunk, he is deposed 

t^Z^V^u^ " t0 WS gUeStS < and °« e which S 
would not have been willing to grant had he been in a sober mood. 



314 Women of the Bible 

The queen's name was Vashti, signifying a beautiful woman. 
He orders this beautiful woman to array herself in her jeweled 
robes and diadems, and with unveiled face to present herself at 
the feast, in the presence of these intoxicated nobles. According 
to the ancient customs, it was as unbecoming and indecent a thing, 
as if a husband to-day should propose to his wife to exhibit her 
naked person in the presence of others. When we reflect that by 
such an act she would become the gazing-stock of a drunken com- 
pany, and make a show of herself to lascivious eyes, we are not 
surprised that she had respect to her own position and dignity. 
As many others of her sex have done, she chose death rather 
than dishonor. Great as was her astonishment that such a com- 
mand should be sent to her, it was just as astonishing to others 
that any one, and especially a woman, would disobey the com- 
mand of even a drunken monarch. Had she been wise and judi- 
cious she might have found some way to have rendered obedi- 
ence, without sacrificing her honor, but we cannot blame her for 
the step taken. This refusal was sent to the king in the presence 
of his lords, and we have no doubt it sobered some of them 
completely. 

This insult to the king, in the very presence of- the representa- 
tives of his empire, cannot be tolerated. More than this, it comes 
very close home to each one of these men. If it goes abroad, 
as it is sure to do, that the queen herself had indignantly refused 
to obey even the king of kings, what had they and other princes 
of the land to expect in their own families from the example, if 
this high crime were not properly punished? 'The naive 
account of the counsel of the king and princes about this first 
stand for woman's rights— their fear that the example might in- 
fect other wives with a like spirit and weaken the authority of 
husbands— is a delightful specimen of ancient simplicity. It 
shows us that the male sex, with all their force of physical mas- 
tery, hold everywhere, even in the undeveloped states 01 civili- 
zation, an almost even-handed conflict with those subtler and more 
ethereal forces which are ever at the disposal of women. ^ It ap- 
pears that the chief counselors and mighty men of Persia could 
scarcely hold their own with their wives, and felt as if the least 
toleration would set them all out in open rebellion." How we 
smile at the child-like simplicity of these men, in recommending 



Queen Esther— the Successful Petitioner 315 

the issuing of a royal decree in all languages of this great empire, 
that every man should bear rule in his own house." We cannot 
think of a more amusing thing than this in all history. We may 
imagine, if not the surprise, at least the general merriment which 
must have pervaded every one of the "one hundred and twenty- 
seven provinces," when this statesman-like decree was promul- 
gated. No doubt it gave great encouragement to men whose 
wives were on the point of "despising" their husbands, for by 
such decree they should be kept in proper subjection. Vashti is 
deposed by the concurrent voice of all the princes of the Medes ' 
and Persians. The day of her highest joy becomes the day of her 
misfortune. • 

After some months have elapsed the wrath of the king is ap- 
peased, and he seems to have regretted the step which he took in 
dethroning the queen. His attendants see that he is troubled, and 
they do not know but his wrath may yet be directed against the 
counselors who had advised this severe measure. To prevent 
anything f this kind they devise a plan to secure a wife h 

minted f ? / T ** he ** m ^^ throu S h a1 ' the on" 

ravelTnt in 'T&T P rovinces are caught, caged, and sent 

tjaxehng towards Shushan, and delivered over to the keepin- of 

urn to e l eU11U t ' '! ke f ° , many Wrds Md b ««erflies; waiting their 
turn to be sent m to the kmg. Among those who came is a fair 

young Jewess, named Esther, whose parents were dead „d who 

h ^ Place Tt " ^ Unde , M - d - ai > who is a porter about 
the place. It was not known that she was of Jewish parenta-e 

He d de?ir S eTt e o r hr° n b her "^ ^ te " 0t *° disclosfthe fa & c t 
EtwSa 2 nZ H 6r TT W l th tHe maidens from India and 
cassk Tnd pV ^ ! m f S r ? m Babyl0n ' the bea "ti« from Cir- 
ice to then? 1 " 513 ' ' m ' ght g '° rify her race and be oi ^rv- 

issued^t in!,?!" S 7 e t , time 3fter thC ki ^' S decree was ^st 
he appHcLt" V ! S He , r W3S admitted into the "^er of 
Dartfe, If ^^ the eUni,ch who had charge of the 

he refl P V ^T ^'T ° f sllr P assi »g beauty. It was probably 
the reflection of a soul through her beautiful face that to 
charmed him and afterwards charmed the king For twelve 
months they were under the care and directs of the Th If 
eunuch so he could fit them to go before the ruler He expected 



316 Women of the Bible 

matters so as to prepare her as early as possible. Day by day 
Mordecai would walk by the court of the women's house to 
learn from those who had her in charge as to the progress of her 
preparation. When the time came to appear before the king, many 
of them decked themselves with necklaces, bracelets, ear-rings, 
and such as these, for this was the event of their lives ; but when 
Esther's time came, she deferred to the judgment of the eunuch, 
who, no doubt, knew the taste of the king. The king is charmed 
.by her appearance. "He does not know that she is a Jewess, 
but her exquisite beauty, her unparalleled modesty, her sym- 
metrical form, her glorious face, where her high intellectuality 
and still higher moral purity blend, win his heart. And while he 
hears the soft tones of her voice and feels the power of her dewy 
eyes, rejecting all others, with his own hand he places the gor- 
geous coronet upon her splendid brow and makes her queen in- 
stead of Vashti." The marriage was celebrated in due form 
and a feast was made in honor of the new queen. 

During the year when Esther was in the place of preparation, 
or soon after her elevation, Mordecai did the king a great favor. 
While walking about the palace he hears of a conspiracy on the 
part of two chamberlains to murder the king. Mordecai, through 
Esther, gave the king notice thereof. The matter was investi- 
gated by the proper authorities and found to be correct. Con- 
spiracies inside the palace were ordinary occurrences in Persia. 
Xerxes was subsequently murdered by the captain of the guard 
and one of the chamberlains. The two men above referred to 
were put to death, and the events were recorded in the chronicles 
of the empire. It was a Persian custom also to insert into these 
chronicles the names of those who had deserved well of the king. 

There is another turn of the kaleidoscope and a certain ad- 
venturer, named Haman, rises suddenly to power and becomes 
prime minister to the king. All the royal court officers were ex- 
pected to bow the knee before Haman and to prostrate themselves, 
for such was the king's arrangement. Mordecai refused to show 
any such honor to this upstart, who was inflated with his -own self- 
conceit. He stood so near the queen that possibly he may have 
felt himself safe in indulging in quiet contempt of this favorite 
of the king. He most likely did not refuse from any personal 
hostility or any special stubbornness. It was no doubt because of 



Queen Esther— the Successful Petitioner ■ 317 

his character as a Jew. As the Persians regarded their king as 
a divinity and paid him divine honors, it is argued by some that 
in Haman, as chief officer, it was doubtless intended to manifest a 
reflection of the divine dignity of the king, and therefore that 
bowing the knee on the part of Mordecai would be idolatry. But 
the fact that Haman was an Agagite and Amalekite seems a suffi- 
cient explanation. That a rigid and independent Jew should re- 
fuse the marks of reverent homage to one of that accursed and 
abominated race, seems in the highest degree natural and probable. 
At first Haman does not seem to pay much attention to it, but 
having been named by others who are ever anxious to cultivate 
the good will of those in power, he notices one remarkable form 
that never bows when he approaches. Whether on foot in the 
gorgeous apparel of a royal favorite or riding upon the richly 
decked Arabian charger with his retinue of attendants, at one gate 
he always finds a man standing like marble while the others kneel 
It finally irritates and maddens him. It is the more aggravating 
when he learns that he belongs to the hated lews who slew his 
forefather Agag. "Had Mordecai been any other than a Jew, the 
favorite would doubtless have been content to wreak his vengeance 
upon the man, whose quiet course provoked him so greatly ; but 
to learn that this man belonged to the very nation which' had 
vowed the extermination of Amalek, opened a wider scope to his 
vengeance. He could not but call to mind the wondrous passages 
of the ancient hatred between them, and which even the present 
demeanor of Mordecai showed to be inextinguishable; and he 
would then remember that this hated and hating nation was as it 
seemed, completely under his hand, being dispersed as captives and 
tributary subjects through the realm in which he had almost abso- 
lute rule. It is under this view, explicable that the bold and 
murderous idea, which appeared to him a grand one no doubt, 
should occur to him of destroying the whole of this nation in one 
day. The slight from Mordecai was simply the occasion, the 
exciting cause, the key that opened the gates to a sweeping flood 
of old hatreds and vengeances.' , 

Haman, having formed his plan, must secure the consent of 
the king, and the ease with which it was done and the lives of tens 
of thousands of his very best citizens placed at the disposal of 
this man, is one of the most shocking examples of Oriental des- 



318 Women of the Bible 

potisms on record. He says : 'There is a nation scattered abroad 
throughout all the provinces of the king's kingdom, and their laws 
are diverse from all people, neither keep they the king's laws, 
therefore it is not for the king's profit to suffer them. If it please 
the king let it be written that they may be destroyed, and I will 
pay ten thousand talents of silver to the hands of them that have 
charge of the business, to bring it into the king's treasury." If the 
king had not been willfully blind or drunk, the extravagant sum 
which this man offered to pay to the royal revenue should have 
awakened his suspicion that this man was not looking so much 
after the public good as he was the gratification of a private ven- 
geance. If it were not best for the public good that these men 
should live, there was no occasion that the prime minister should 
pay so much out of his private funds for a public blessing. 

In our day we talk much of the contempt and disregard shown 
to women among the Oriental nations, but in this case men were 
treated no better than women. In fact, human beings were cheap. 
The destruction of faithful citizens was arranged for in as easy 
and off-hand manner as a farmer would dispose of his cattle or 
his sheep. Until Christianity came with its uplifting power, man- 
kind had no proper conception of the worth of a human being. 
'There was no prevalent sense in men of an essential primitive 
dignity belonging to their nature. In the common understanding 
of things, man had sprung from the earth, and the grasshopper 
was his fitting badge. From rocks and trees and swampy places 
some had come, those born of the marsh having legs like serpents. 
Heroes themselves, and even the gods according to Pindar, had 
drawn their breath from the same mother. The first man had 
lived as insignificant emmets in the excavated earth or in the sun- 
less depth of caverns."* When Christ came he taught men of 
their divine origin and therefore their true worth. "No doubt 
many a rude fisherman of Galilee heard his words with a heart 
bounding and scarce able to keep in his bosom, went home a new 
man with a legion of angels in his breast, and from that day lived 
a divine life and beautiful. To them the word of Jesus must have 
sounded divine, like the music of their home sung out in the sky 



*Storr's "Divine Evidences of Christianity," p. 73. 




< 



O 

n 






Queen Esther — the Successful Petitioner 319 

and heard in a distant land beguiling toil of its weariness, pain 
of its sting, affliction of despair." f- 

The king seemed to be entirely satisfied with the arrangement, 
and gave his seal ring to Haman, which not only empowered him 
to make the proclamation already asked for, but to issue any other 
suitable decree which he found necessary. He at once arranges 
to have the necessary proclamation made. Says the story, "The 
king's scribes were called on the thirteenth day of the first month, 
and there was written according to all that Haman had com- 
manded, and the letters were sent by post unto all the provinces, 
to destroy, to kill, and to cause to perish all Jews, both old and 
young, little children and women, in one day of the twelfth month, 
which is the month of Adar, to take the spoil of them for a prey! 
The posts went out being hastened by the king's commandment, 
and the king and Haman sat down to drink, but the city cf Shu- 
shan was perplexed." 

When Mordecai heard, as he did no doubt from some friend 
of Haman, of the terrible catastrophe which was to come upon his 
people, he rent his clothes and covered himself with sackcloth 
and ashes, and went into the midst of the city crying out in his 
distress with a loud and bitter cry. Pie came even to the king's 
gate, but he could not go any farther in his sackcloth. No sight 
or sound of human suffering must disturb the peaceful quiet of 
the royal court. It was not his own personal danger that alarmed 
him, but it was the calamity threatening the whole Jewish people 
Xot only here in Shushan but wherever this decree went, there 
was the same desolation and the people gave vent to their distress 
by putting on sackcloth and sitting in ashes. 

Resting in her luxurious apartments, listening to the music of 
the birds and the splash of the fountains, away from the cares 
and perplexities of busy life, the queen knew nothing of the 
murderous decree which had just gone forth against her people 
\\ hile the officers about the court most likely did not know the 
nationality of Esther, they knew of her relations to Mordecai and 
they would inform her of all they knew concerning him She 
learned that her kinsman was in sackcloth, and she sent him costly 
garments that he might again stand in the gates of the king; but he 

^'Discourses on Religion," Theodore Parker, p. 305. 



320 Women of the Bible 

refused to wear them for he wanted a private interview. She 
sends her chief chamberlain to learn of the cause of his distress, 
and Mordecai sent to her a copy of the decree with an account of 
how and by whom obtained, and he enjoins upon her that she go 
before the king and make supplication for her people. Esther 
hears the report and returns the following answer: "All the 
kings servants ... do know, that whosoever, whether man 
or woman, shall come unto the king into the inner court, who is 
not called, there is one law ... to put him to death, except 
such to whom the king shall hold out the golden sceptre, that he 
may live : but I have not been called to come in unto the king these 

thirty days." . 

She has been married now about five years. Knowing herseli 
to be one of the out-lawed race, she does not know but that the 
king's heart may have been set against her by the enemies of her 
people, and therefore he has not summoned her for thirty days. 
This would make her situation a dangerous one. Mordecai mani- 
fests unusual anxiety for the welfare of his people and sends in 
reply to her a sterner message : "Think not with thyself that thou 
shalt escape in the king's house, more than all the Jews. For if 
thou altogether boldest thy peace at this time, then shall there 
enlargement and deliverance arise to the Jews from another place, 
but thou and thy father's house shall be destroyed : and who know- 
eth whether thou art come to the kingdom for such a time as this?" 

"Mourning within the palace, in her room, 
The young queen sits alone. A soft perfume 
Mingles its odors with the evening breeze, 
As steals it through the garden's fragrant trees, 
Ere fanning her white brow. Soft music is 
Upon the air— the wild bird's joyous notes 
Are gushing forth. A jeweled coronet 
Is gleaming close beside her. Not as yet 
Have tears bedimmed its lustre, nor has care 
Made that light crown too wearisome to bear 

And yet her brow 

Is sad: and in calm, motionless despair 

Her small, white hands are clasped. Why mourns she now? 
'Tis for her nation, heaven's peculiar trust 
In years long past, now bowing to the dust- 
Condemned to die to gratify the pride 
Of one weak man; and she, the monarch s bride, 
Is of the number, though he knozvs it not. 



Queen Esther — the Successful Petitioner 321 

Esther hears this pitiful appeal from her kinsman, this call, 
it may be, to martyrdom. Possibly she has been placed in this 
high position that she might be a blessing to her nation. Con- 
scious of her danger, but strong in the justice of her cause, she 
determines to go forward and sends this answer: "Go, gather 
together all the Jews that are present in Shushan, and fast ye for 
me, and neither eat nor drink three days, night or day : I also and 
my maidens will fast likewise; and so will I go in unto the king, 
which is not according to the law : and if I perish, I perish" And 
Mordecai did as Esther enjoined upon him. 

She fasts two weary days and nights. Her grief has made 
inroads upon her beauty. She washes away as far as she can all 
traces of suffering, braids her hair more carefully than usual, and 
arrays herself in apparel that becomes her radiant beauty. She 
carries in her hands, maybe, the salvation of her own nation, and 
nothing is too trifling which will help to secure that. She enters 
the doorway, which to enter is to forfeit life. As the king hears 
the rustling of her dress, he turns around to see who has broken 
in upon his quiet, and beholds his own wife. She is silent, but her 
unspoken appeal reaches his heart, and he holds out the golden 
scepter. He said unto her, "What wilt thou, Queen Esther? and 
what is thy request? k shall be even given thee" to the half of the 
kingdom." He knew that no little thing would lead her to assume 
such a risk. She is too much excited possibly to open her heart 
and press her petition. Maybe she wants to know the power of 
her influence over this man before she tells her tale of woe. She 
modestly asks that the king and Haman would come that day to a 
banquet in the queen's apartments, and it was so arranged. 

At the banquet the king again asked her to make known her 
request. She delays her answer and asks both the king and his 
minister to come to a banquet again on the morrow and she will 
then make known her wish. Haman is very much flattered by 
this attention on the part of the queen. As he passed by Mordecai, 
who would show him no honor, he was full of indignation. As he 
goes home to his family, he gives an account of the honors which 
the king has conferred upon him, and that even the queen had 
extended to him an invitation which had been proffered to no 
other. All this, however, availed him nothing, he said, so long as 
he saw Mordecai the Jew sitting in the king's gate. His skillful . 



3?2 Women of the Bible 

wife sees a wav out of his difficulty. "Let a gallows be made of 
fifty cubits high, and to-morrow speak thou unto the king, that 
Mordecai may be hanged thereon: then go thou in merrily with 
the king unto the banquet." The thing was agreeable to Hainan 
and he caused the gallows to be erected. ^ 

On that night the king could not sleep. He was in his royal 
bedchamber and silence pervaded the palace, but sleep had de- 
parted from him. He cannot think what terrible emergency in- 
duced his wife, timid woman as she was, to jeopardize her life. 
He calls an attendant to read to him the prosy records of the 
kingdom which probably on some former occasion had induced 
sleep As they were read his ear caught the account of the preser- 
vation of his life by the prompt action of Mordecai. 'What honor 
hath been done to Mordecai for this?" he inquired, and the servant 
announced that nothing had been done. The king is surprised at 
his own forgetf ulness which seemed like gross ingratitude. I he 
thing was in his mind, and in the early morning, hearing Hainan 
in the outer court, he gives orders to have him admitted. Haman s 
mind is full of the gallows and of Mordecai, and with the king s 
permission he will soon have the hated Jew out of the way. The 
king is also thinking of Mordecai, but with a different end m view. 
The king inquires of his minister, "What shall be done with the 
man whom the king delighteth to honor?" Haman cou d think 
of no one whom the king would so likely honor as himsel^so he 
proposes a magnificent scheme. The man shall be clothed m the 
king's royal robes, wear the king's crown, be mounted on the 
king's horse, and be led through the streets by one of the king s 
chief counselors proclaiming, "This is the man whom the 
king delighteth to honor." "Then said the king, Make haste to do 
even so as thou hast said unto Mordecai, the Jew, that sitteth in 
the king's gate. Let nothing fail of all thou hast spoken There 
was no other way but for Haman to go forth and fulfill the king s 
commands, but what pleasure and comfort he took in the perform- 
ance can well be imagined. At noon the king, Haman, and Esther 
are again at banquet. There is still one hope for him: Mordecai 
must die by the execution of a decree which destroys his nation 

It is not at all certain that the king had ever taken the trouble 
to find out the nationality of the people whom he had given over 
to destruction, just as he had not taken the trouble hitherto to 



Queen Esther — the Successful Petitioner 323 

reward the man who had so graciously saved his life. He did not 
know of the rankling passion of envy that was eating in Hainan's 
heart, and had no thought possibly of the bitterness of the duty 
which he had placed upon him. Mordecai is led through the 
streets in a manner which showed to all that the king would put 
upon him special honor. Haman having performed this very 
unpleasant duty, returns to his home covered with shame after 
such a humiliating public exposure. When he recounted to his 
wife the terrible disappointments which that day had crossed his 
pathway, she offered him poor consolation when she said, "If 
Mordecai be of the seed of the Jews before whom thou hast begun 
to fall, thou shalt not prevail against him, but shalt surely fall 
before him." 

The time has come for the second banquet, and the king and 
Haman are once more in a secluded apartment, dining with the 
queen. After the events that have just occurred, no doubt Haman 
came with a much more subdued manner than he had manifested 
before. ^Once more the king asks, "What is thy request, Queen 
Esther ? The time has come when she is sufficiently wrought up 
to give the answer, with a dignity and earnestness becoming her 
position and the interests of her people, whom in the providence 
of God she had been called to save. She says : "If I have found 
favour in thy sight, O king, and if it please the king, let my life 
be given me at my petition, and my people at my request : For we 
are^ sold, I and my people, to be destroyed, to be slain, and to 
perish. If we had been sold for bondmen and bondwomen, I had 
held my tongue." The king is astounded at such information, as 
his excited reply plainly indicates, "Who is he, and where is 'he, 
that durst presume in his heart to do so ?" asks the aroused king.' 
The queen answers, "The adversary and enemy is this wicked 
Haman." The man trembled at this revelation of his skillful 
wicked scheming, as he had good reason to do. The king's anger 
was aroused, and to quiet his agitation he rushed out into the 
palace garden. For the first time he seems to see the blunder 
which he had made in thus ordering the destruction of the race 
to which his wife belonged. He has already sent orders to all the 
provinces to destroy the people of whom his wife is one, and for 
whom she is now interceding at the risk of her own life. The 
king is guilty, because of such cruel negligence, but his prime 



324 Women of the Bible 

minister must take the consequences of having induced him to 
take such a rash step. Haman reads in the angry face ot the king 
his impending doom. There is no help for him, unless the queen 
may be touched by his condition. In the absence of the king, 
and paled with fear, he falls at the feet of Esther upon the couch 
where she rests, and as the king comes back in anger from the 
garden and sees him there, he exclaims, "Will he force the queen 
a .so before me in the house ?" As he ceased speaking they covered 
Raman's face, a sign that he must pay the penalty of his wicked- 
ness with his life. An attendant, who no doubt was anxious to 
keep in favor with the king and queen, said, "Behold also the 
-allows fifty cubits high, which Haman had made for Mordecai 
who had spoken good for the king, standeth in the house of 
Haman " The king answered, "Hang him thereon." Josephus 
adds very appropriately to this record the following statement: 
"From hence I cannot forbear to admire God, and to learn hence 
his wisdom and justice, not only in punishing the wickedness of 
Haman, but in so disposing it that, he should undergo the very 
same punishment which he had contrived for another. As also 
because he thereby teaches this lesson, that what mischiefs any 
one prepares against another, he without knowing it first contrives 

it against himself." 

The king is anxious to undo as far as possible his former mis- 
chief The decree which has already gone out cannot be counter- 
manded for a law of the Medes and Persians cannot be altered, 
but its cruel results may in part be avoided. Esther reveals to the 
kin- the relationship existing between herself and Mordecai, and 
the "latter is made prime minister. The signet ring which Haman 
had used to seal official documents is now given to Mordecai. The 
queen beseeches that as far as possible the letters of the king be 
countermanded. She is authorized to issue a new edict to the 
governors, and sign it with the king's seal, and it will be just as 
authoritative as the one previously sent. Mordecai prepared the 
edict signed it with the king's seal, and sent it to all the governors 
of the hundred and twenty-seven provinces by the most rapid 
means of convevance which he had at his disposal. "As the case 
then stood, the governors and other authorities were not obligated 
to assist in the preparation for the destruction of the Jews, nor yet 



Queen Esther — the Successful Petitioner 325 

to obstruct or hinder the resistance which the Jews would offer 
to their assailants. They could leave the case to the people, 
whether they would attack the Jews and risk a conflict, and they 
need not afterwards punish such Jews as had slain their enemies. 
More than this, the Jews were permitted to assemble and arm for 
their common defense in advance, against all the assaults and 
reverses which might otherwise befall them/' 

The result of this new measure brings great joy to the people 
as well as great glory to Mordecai. He assumes the robes of 
state and assists the king in the government of his people. The 
people who were in terror for their lives have been made to rejoice. 
Man proposes, but God disposes, and he has once more interfered 
to protect his own. It was a time of great deliverance to many, 
and made so great an impression on the provinces that many of 
the people joined themselves to the Jews. On the great day of 
the decreed slaughter, "all the rulers and officers of the king 
helped the Jews because the fear of Mordecai fell upon them." 
The eventful day finally came. The Jews were prepared for any 
attack that should be made upon them. It was known the prime 
minister was a Jew, a friend of their race, and back of him stood 
the king and queen. In those two days of terror and blood there 
is no indication that any Jews fell; of their enemies five hundred 
fell in Shushan, and in all the provinces seventy-five hundred. 
They did not touch any of the property of the slain, although 
permitted by the king so to do. The second day assigned for the 
slaughter and the day following were days of exultation and joy. 
That day on which they had expected assault and pillage and 
blood was, by the wonderful overruling of Providence, a day of 
bloodless victory over their enemies; a day of feasting, of con- 
gratulations, and of all possible demonstrations of joy.. 

When Haman determined upon the destruction of this people, 
he concluded he must select an appropriate day; and so, after the 
manner of the Eastern people, he cast lots for an auspicious day, 
beginning with the first month of the year and going on day after 
day and month after month until he was driven to the thirteenth 
day of the very last month as the only auspicious time for the 
commencement of this dreadful massacre. By this means, between 
the issuing of the decree and the arrival of the fatal day eight 



326 Women of the Bible 

months intervened for the posts to carry the king's edict to the 
remotest provinces in the empire, and for every Jewish settlement 
everywhere to prepare to stand at bay against the men who would 
pursue them to the death. "We doubt not it was the Lord's doing, 
for the confusion of Hainan and to accomplish the secret design 
of his provinces, that the lot was made to fix the time to the 
remotest possible period to be within the year ; so that the execu- 
tion was delayed for almost a complete year, affording time not 
only for the subversion of the plot at court, but for the arrival of 
the messengers who were dispatched with a counteracting decree. 
It is manifest that if the interval had been anything shorter, these 
could not have reached the remoter provinces of an empire which 
stretched from Judea to Ethiopia, in time to neutralize the 
execution of the first." The "feast of lots" became the Passover 
feast of the "dispersion." It preceded the Paschal feast by only 
a month, and to make the parallel complete was celebrated not on 
the thirteenth, the triumphant day, but on the fourteenth and 
fifteenth of Adar, corresponding to the fourteenth and fifteenth of 
the Paschal month Nisan. 

The name of the author of this beautiful story cannot be 
determined with any certainty. He must have lived on the spot, 
for the details of the story are given so minutely. His reference 
to Persian names, life, history, and customs agree entirely with 
what comes to us from the Greek historians. Some think it was 
written by Mordecai, who had access to the annals of state. If not 
written by him, it may have been by his direction and under his 
eye. It was evidently" the intention of the author to give a reason 
for the feast of Purim. The occasion of the feast would be a 
matter of great moment to the Jews, and would show that in the 
government of the world there is a justice which protects Judaism 
and preserves it amid the greatest clangers. Why the name of 
God should not be mentioned cannot be known, but there may have 
been some reason in their relation to Persian ideas and supersti- 
tions which seemed to make it best to omit it. 

"Though his name be absent, God himself is there. We trace 
him at every step through this wonderful book and everywhere 
behold the leadings of his providence. To name one instance 
among many : What was it, or rather who was it, that kept the 



Queen Esther — the Successful Petitioner 327 

king's eyes from slumber on a night big with the doom of the 
Hebrew nation ? Who moved him to call for the chronicles of his 
reign and not to summon the tale-reciter or the minstrel to beguile 
his waking hours? Who moved the reader to open at that part 
which related to the service of Mordecai in disclosing a plot against 
the king's life? Who quickened the king's languid attention and 
interest, and stirred him to inquire what reward had been bestowed 
upon the man to whose fidelity he owed his life and crown ? Who 
timed this so that this glow of kindly feeling towards Mordecai 
and this determination right royally to acknowledge his unrequited 
services, occurred at the very moment that Haman had arrived 
at the palace to ask leave to hang this very Mordecai upon a 
gallows fifty feet high, which he had caused already to be set up 
in the assumed conviction that the king would not refuse him so 
trifling a request, and little thinking that he himself was destined 
to swing high in air upon it? Who ordered jt so, that coming with 
this errand in his mouth, he was only stopped from uttering it by 
an order to hasten to confer upon this Mordecai, with his own 
hands, the highest distinction the king could bestow upon the man 
he 'delighted to honor'? God not in the Book of Esther? If not, 
where is he? To our view, his glory — the glory of his goodness 
in caring for and shielding from harm his afflicted church — shines 
through every page." 

We are often, without our choice, put into circumstances where 
we are compelled to do battle or to retreat ; to do with our might 
the work before us or submit to inglorious defeat. Such occasions 
both test and develop our strength. Men and women who have 
blessed their race and honored God have all passed through such 
scenes, and have remembered with joy the day when an overruling 
Providence put their feet in such a pathway. No doubt Esther, 
in outshining all the daughters of the land and thus winning her 
way to the throne, delighted the heart of Mordecai, who was 
pleased that such honors should be conferred upon one of his own 
race and family. Perhaps in her own heart she rejoiced at this 
promotion ; but scarcely had she received the desire of her heart, 
when she found herself in a very trying position. From no design 
or wish on her part, the well-being of her whole race seemed to 
hang upon her conduct. There appeared to be no other one that 



328 Women of the Bible 

could take her place. To recede was to consign her race to 
slaughter to gratify the pride of one wicked man. Her own life 
might be sacrificed with that of her race. To go forward promised 
but one" fay of hope. Like a brave-hearted woman she took the 
risk and went forward saying, "If I perish, I perish." Thus are 
responsibilities thrust upon us which we do not seek, and we are 
put to bearing burdens through no effort of our own. 

"Thanksgiving to the Lord of life— to him all praises be, 
Who from the hands of evil men hath set his handmaid free; 
All praise to him, before whose power the mighty are afraid, 
Who takes the crafty in the snare which for the poor is laid. 

"Sine, oh mv soiil. rejoicingly, on evening's twilight calm; 
Uplift the loud thanksgiving— pour forth the grateful psalm; 
Let all dear hearts with me rejoice— as did the saints of old, 
When of the Lord's good angel the rescued Peter told. 

"And weep and howl, ye evil priests and mighty men of wrong, 
The Lord shall smite the proud and lay his hand upon the throng. 
Woe to the wicked rulers in his avenging hour, 
Woe to the wolves who seek the flocks, to raven and devour. 

"But let the humble ones arise— the poor in heart be glad; 
And let the mourning ones" again with robes of praise be glad; 
For he who cooled the furnace, and smoothed the stormy wave, 
And tamed the Chaldean lions, is mighty still to save." 



3Tubttfj===tfie Beltberer 



"Then Judith dared not look upon him more, 
Lest she should lose her reason through her eyes-; 
And with her palms she covered up her eyes 
To shut him out ; but from that subtler sight 
Within, she could not shut him, and so stood. 
Then suddenly there fell upon her ear 
The moan of children moaning in the streets 
And throngs of famished women swept her by, 
Ringing their wasted hands, and all the woes 
Of the doomed city pleaded at her heart. 
A« if she were within the very walls .11.4.1 

These things she heard and saw. With hurried breath 
Judith blew out the light, all lights save one, 
And from its nail the heavy falchion took 
And with both hands tight claspt upon the hilt, 
Thrice smote the Prince of Asshur as he lay, 
Thrice on his neck she smote him as he lay, 
Then from her flung the cruel curved blade 
That in the air an instant Aashed_and fell. ^ ^.^ 



3Tubftfi — tfje Beliberer 



THE Book of Judith is found in our old family Bibles in 
what are called the Apochryphal Books. It was originally 
written in the Hebrew language, by a Palestinian Jew, 
some two hundred years before the coming of Christ. Like the 
ancient Hebrew books of the Bible, which have been translated 
into Greek, this Book of Judith not long after its composition 
was similarly honored, and after a time found a place in the 
Greek Bible. It has been a question, at least for some time, 
whether the book is authentic history or a romance. Its his- 
torical statements are utterly irreconcilable, and its geographical 
difficulties fully as embarrassing. It is now generally agreed that 
it is a story, simply the work of the imagination, and is entitled 
to no credence whatever as a historical work any more than is 
the Arabian Nights. It is one of the few choice specimens of 
esthetic literature which can be found among the earlier writing 
of this people. While there are some teachings in the book, which 
from the standpoint of our nineteenth century civilization must 
be considered as immoral, and therefore dangerous, the character 
of Judith m the mam is one of which any writer might be proud 
She has been an interesting character for the artist in all ages 
She well represents the patriotic womanhood which was the re- 
sult of Jewish teachings and training through a long series of 
ages. The book is to be read, therefore, as a story and not as a 
history ; much less as a canonical book of scripture, but as a high 
conception of a Jewish woman, as portrayed by a writer living 
two centuries before the Christian era. fe 

The author commences his story by giving an account of a de- 
structive war which an Assyrian king, named Nebuchadnosar 
had waged against the Medes and Persians. After five years of 
contest, toe king of the Medes and Persians had been killed and 
the capital destroyed. In this war, the neighboring states had 
allied themselves with one side or the other. The Jews were 
among those who did not come to the support of the Assvrian 



^3? Women of the Bible 

king and therefore at the close of the war he determines to chas- 
SStam for their failure to support him. Ther-s no place m 
recorded history where these events will properly find a place, 
r n d therefore the conclusion is irresistible, that the whole produc- 
?bn!T simply the creation of the author's fancy, as much so as 
+1-.P mntents of any other work of fiction. 

The story goes on to tell how the king called his chief general 
the next in command to him, Holof ernes by name and tells him 
that he hs determined to punish those residing in the wej coun- 
ts because they disobeyed the order of my mouth. This great 
army, cons sting of thousands of infantry and cavalry a^ h 
wonderful thing's which they proposed to do ar e s t f o th m 1 
most -lowing colors. The commander and his forces start lorn 
Z the r mission of destruction, as an army of locusts and a, 
°^e sTnd of the earth for multitude." The inhabitants of the 
s a o t make a voluntary submission, but none the less, their 
troves ^are burned and their idols destroyed, so that no one shah 
L div ne y honored except the king. Holofernes final y encamped 
\n Sam of Jezreel, as is supposed, remaining mac ive for one 
possibly for two months. The children of Israel having returned 
?°om captivity, hearing of this mans atrocit.es and earing that 

TnTy kT^-it of' the high mountains and Certified villages 
while the inhabitants of Bethulia guarded the passes ^o the nmun 
tains Having made all the necessary preparations, they held a 
solemn fast and prayed to God for protection. Enraged, as well 
as aTtonished at the audacity of these men in thus preparing to 
fight him Holofernes makes inquiry of the chiefs of Amnion who 
these people are. Achior, the leader of the Ammonites, tells hmi 
^power could vanquish them unless they *« against G£ 
The proud Holofernes becomes angry at this statement a 

arfhls "gainst Betbulia, takes the mountain passes, seizes all 

rjyrs wat er , a nd i ays ^ to ^ <** «** £**% 

days. The famishing people urge upon Onar, the. governor 



Judith — the Deliverer 333 

surrender the city and save their lives, which he finally decides to 
do unless relief comes within the five days. 

Judith now enters upon the scene. Her ancestry is given, 
and a further statement is made that "Manasses, her husband,' 
had died in the barley harvest." "Now Judith was a widow in 
her own house three years and four months, and she made her 
tent on the top of her house, put on sackcloth and wore her 
widow's apparel ; and she fasted all the days of her widowhood, 
save the eves of the sabbaths and the new moons and the solemn 
feast days of Israel. She was also of goodly countenance and 
beautiful to behold, and her husband, Monasses, had left her 
gold and silver and man-servants and maid-servants and cattle 
and lambs and she remained upon them. And there was none 
gave her an idle word for she feared God greatly." 

She heard of the complaints of the people against their rulers 
because of the lack of water, and that the rulers had promised to 
deliver the city to the Assyrians after five days if the .Lord did not 
interfere to help them. She sends her maid to invite the rulers 
and elders of the city, and they came to see her. When they were 
present, she said, "Hear now, -ye governors of the inhabitants of 
Bethulia, for the words that you have spoken are not right touch- 
ing this oath, that you have promised to deliver the city to our en- 
emies unless within these days the Lord turn and help you. And 
now, who are ye that have tempted God this day, to stand in the 
stead of God the children of men?" 

This is a high idea of faith in God and the courage which grows 
out of it. These men have been placed in charge of a sacred trust 
and they had no right to say that unless God would interfere they 
would surrender that trust. It is their business to stand by the 
city over which God has given them control and not make any 
conditions with God or for him as to when he shall interfere and 
when he shall not. She further says to them: "And now try the 
Lord Almighty and ye shall never know anything. For ye cannot 
find the depths of the heart of the man, neither can ye perceive 
what he thinketh ; how then can ye search out God, that hath made 
all things, and comprehend his purposes ? Nay, my brethren pro- 
voke not the Lord our God to anger ; for if he will not help within 
five days, he hath power to help us when he will, even every day 
Do not bind the counsel of the Lord, for God is not a man that he 



334 Women of the Bible 

may be threatened. Therefore, let us wait for salvation from .him, 
and call upon him and he will hear, if it please him. This is 
faithful and wholesome teaching on the part of this widowed 
woman ; and that these men should receive it so kindly and act 
upon her suggestions so freely, shows the exalted position which 
a devoted, religious woman held in the counsels of the Jewish 

They have had a glorious heritage. It will be dishonorable to 
betray it. If they do, all Judea shall lie in waste. The slaughter 
of their brethren and the desolation of their inheritance shall 
come upon them. She most earnestly appeals to them once more. 
"Now therefore, O brethren, let us show an example to our breth- 
ren because their hearts depend on us, and the sanctuary and the 
house and the altar rest on us. Besides all this, let us give thanks 
to the Lord our God who trieth us, even also as our fathers. 

The officers receive this earnest, patriotic, womanly appeal 
with great respect, and Ozias, the governor, answers There is 
none who will gainsay thy words." They were compelled to yield 
to the persistent request of the people, and to make to them a 
promise which they dare not break. They beseech her, however, 
"therefore, pray thou for us, for thou art a goodly woman, and the 
Lord will send us rain to fill our cisterns that we thirst no more. 
Tudith- as if inspired with a message from heaven, says to them, 
"Hear' me and I will do a thing which shall go from generation 
to generation, to the children of our race." They are to,,send her 
and her maid out of the city that night with a bag of P'Q™, 
and within the next five days the Lord will visit Israel by he. 
hands They must not inquire any further into her plans until 
hey are accomplished. They confide in her and without any 
further knowledge of what she will do they promise to aid her 

The officials went to their accustomed duties, while Judith 
went to prayer. She had taken a great burden upon her, and on y 
God could show her the way out. The story tells us, "Then Judith 
fell on her face and put ashes on her head and uncovered he 
sackcloth wherewith she was clothed ;" and about the time that the 
incense of that evening was offered in Jerusalem m the house of 
the I ord Tudith cried with a loud voice to the Lord : O God 
O m God, hear me also the widow. What will be, thou hast 
thought of, and what thou hast thought of comes to pass. , . • 




JUDITH 



Judith — the Deliverer 335 

Behold, the Assyrians are multiplied in their power and are exalted 
with horse and man; they glory in the strength of their footmen; 
they trust in shield and spear and bow, and know not that thou 
art the Lord that breaketh battles. The Lord is thy name. Throw 
down their strength in thy power, and bring down their force in 
thy wrath, for they have purpose to defile thy sanctuary and pol- 
lute the tabernacle where thy glorious name resteth, and to cast 
down with sword the horns of thy altar. Behold their pride, send 
thy wrath upon their heads, and give unto me which am a widow 
the power that I have conceived. For thy power standeth not in 
multitude, nor thy might in strong men ; for thou art the God of 
the afflicted, thou art a helper of the oppressed, an upholder of the 
weak, a protector of the forlorn, a savior of them that are without 
h^pe. T pray thee, I pray thee, O God of my father, king of every 
creature, hear my prayer and make my speech and deceit to be 
their wound and strife, who have purposed cruel things against 
thy covenant, and thy hallowed house, and against the house of 
the possession of thy children/' A simple, fervent, eloquent 
prayer and full of confidence" in God as a defender of the weak 
and a refuge for the helpless. 

According to the story, when she had concluded her prayer, 
she called her maid and, going into their chamber, she removed 
all the garments which for these years had been an indication of 
her widowhood. She anointed herself with precious ointment, 
arrayed herself in her finest apparel, and practiced every art known 
to her which would in any manner enhance her beauty. When this 
had all been completed, she took her maid with her and, passing 
through the gates of her own people, she went toward the Assyrian 
army expecting to be taken prisoner by them. As she had antici- 
pated, she was met by the sentinels and they inquired whither she 
was going. She claimed she was fleeing from the Hebrews and 
desired to be taken into the presence of their general, for she was 
able to show him how he could win all the hill country without the 
loss of a single soul. They selected a bodyguard of a hundred 
picked men, who escorted her and her maid to the tent of the com- 
mander-in-chief. She created no little sensation by her presence. 
'Then there was a concourse through all the camp, for her coining 
was noised among the tents, and they came about her as she stood 
waiting without the tent of Holofernes ; and they wondered at her 



336 Women of the Bible 

beauty and admired the children of Israel because of her, and 
every one said to his neighbors, Who would despise this people 
that have among them such women?" _ 

Having reached his tent, she fell upon her knees and did him 
reverence The commander, as well as his servants and soldiers, 
is surprised at her beauty. He treats her most royally, promises 
her entire safety that none shall hurt her, and inquires why she 
fled from the Hebrews and why she came to him. She proceeds 
♦o relate to him the story which she had prepared She compli- 
ments hin. for his wisdom and subtle devices and because he is 
"mighty in insight and admirable as an army leader. She in- 
forms him that her people are under God's protection so long as 
they conform to his law, but because of the pressure of famine 
upon them they are about to eat of forbidden articles and to con- 
sume the grain and the wine and the oil which are part of the 
sacred offerings clue the temple. It is not lawful for any one to 
o much as touch them with their hands. When they do this, their 
God will turn against" them, and they shall be delivered mto your 
hand- She had learned this and was sent of God to reveal this 
to him "whereat all the earth shall be astonished.-' She proposes 
to remain with him, and will go out from time to time; and when 
her people have committed this sacrilege, it will be announced to 
her and she will then report to him that the hour has come to go 
forth and attack them, and not one of them shall escape. 

Judith is now in high honor. She hath won the heart of the 
commander and of his servants. "There is not such a woman 
from one end of the earth to the other for beauty of face and 
intelligent speech." The commander promises that if her plans 
succeed she shall dwell in the palace of the king and he will adopt 
her God For two or three evenings she goes forth for prayer and 
ablutions at the fountain, earnestly desiring God to raise up the 
children of her people. On the fourth day, the commander made 
a feast to his servants, and in company with Bagoas, the chief of 
the eunuchs, he concluded that this beautiful woman would laugh 
him to scorn if he did not take occasion to win her for his own use. 
A banquet is arranged for, and the message is earned to the 
woman in a very dainty style : "Let not this fair damsel fear to 
come unto my Lord, and to be honored in his presence, and to 
drink wine and to be merry, and to be made this day as one of the 



Judith — the Deliverer 337 

Assyrians that serve in the house of Nebuchadnosar." Judith 
graciously receives this unbecoming proposal by replying, "And 
who am I that I should gainsay my lord? For everything that 
pleaseth him I will do speedily, and it shall be my joy until the 
day of my death." She arrayed herself in the best apparel and 
decked herself with jewelry. At the appointed time she came to 
the banquet and "ravished the heart of the commander with her 
winning ways. He urged her to drink and to be merry with him. 
She ate and drank what her maid had prepared, while he drank 
more wine than he had drunk at any time before in one day since 
he was born. The result was, when the feast had ended and Judith 
was left alone with him, he was dead drunk with wine and had 
fallen over on his couch. 

Judith had left her maid outside with her provision bag in 
her hand as she had done before when she went to prayer. "Then 
all went out and there was none left in the bedchamber, neither 
little nor great. Then Judith, standing by the bed, said in her 
heart, "O Lord God of all power, look at this present, on the work 
of my hands for the exaltation of Jerusalem. For now is the time 
to help thy inheritance and to execute my enterprise to the destruc- 
tion of the enemies that are risen up against us." Then she came 
to the pillow of the couch and took down the sword from thence, 
and approached his bed and took hold of the hair of his head, and 
said, "Strengthen my arm, O Lord God of Israel, this day, and she 
smote twice upon his neck with all her might, and she took away 
his head from him and went forth." 

The head was given to the maid, who placed it in her provision 
sack. They two went out together according to their custom when 
they went to prayer, and in the dim light of the morning they 
came to the gates of the city, with the head of the commander and 
the hangings of the bed upon which he lay. "Then called Judith 
from afar off to the watchman, Open thou the gates, for God, 
even our God, is with us to show his power yet in Israel and his 
strength against the enemy." The men ran down to the gates and 
hastily called a counsel of the elders. A fire was kindled for light, 
and as they gathered about her to hear the wonderful story, she 
broke forth in triumphant joy: "Praise, praise, praise God, I 
say, for he has not taken away his mercy from the house of Israel, 
but hath destroyed the enemy by my hand this night." She took 



s 



338 Women of the Bible 

the bloody head out of the bag and, holding it up in their presence, 
said: "Behold the head of Holofernes, the chief captain of the 
army of Assur, and behold the canopy where he did lie in his 
drunkenness, and the Lord has smitten him by the hand of the 
woman. As the Lord liveth who had kept me in my way that I 
went, my countenance has deceived him to his destruction, yet had 
he not committed sin with me to defile and shame me." 

Her countrymen were greatly amazed at what she had done, 
and invoked the blessings of God upon her. Ozias, the ruler, 
says to her : "O daughter, blessed art thou among all the women 
of the earth, and blessed be the Lord God which created the 
heavens and the earth, which hath directed thee to the cutting off 
of the head of our chief enemy. For this thing confidence shall 
not depart from the hearts of men which remember the power of 
God forever. And God turned these things for a perpetual praise, 
because thou hast not spared thy life for the affliction of our na- 
tion, but hast avenged our ruin, walking in a straight way before 
our God. And all the people said, Amen, so be it." 

Exalted by her success, she now assumes the part of an 
adviser to the ruler. She directs the officials to hang his head on 
the wall. The people are to rush down as though intending to 
make an attack. The Assyrians will visit the tent of Holofernes ; 
when they find he is dead, they will be thrown into confusion, and 
the Hebrew army shall then make its attack. They did as she 
directed. The Assyrians rushed to the tent to waken their gen- 
eral, and they find "him "dead, and his head was from him." A 
terrible cry and noise arose in the midst of the camp. Great fear 
and trembling seized upon all, and they rushed forth and fled to 
the hill country and the plain. The Hebrews routed the whole 
army, captured their camp, and the spoil that was taken was very 

great. 

When Joachim, the high priest, and the council came to see and 
hear what had been done, they made an occasion for thanks- 
giving. All the rich furnishings which belonged to the tent of 
Holofernes had been taken and given to Judith. The menwreathed 
garlands about their weapons and sang songs of rejoicing. The 
women, crowning themselves with olive leaves and led by Judith, 
went forth to rhythmic dance, as she sang a song of victory. The 
spirit of the song is exultation in God, who protects the weak and 



Judith — the Deliverer 339 

the helpless. He had turned aside from the counsels of the great 
and had used her, a weak woman, to overcome the power of the 
enemy. No doubt the writer was familiar with the song of 
Deborah, and to some extent modeled his own after it. While not 
so vigorous as the other, it is still a fine specimen of ancient com- 
position. The conception of the woman, which he has given us, 
bating a few weaknesses, is a magnificent one. A devoted, pious 
woman, a lonely widow, living in retirement, when under the 
influence of a strong conviction of duty and with firm faith in 
God, single-handed and alone, grasps the hand which God offered 
her and in his strength becomes the deliverer of her people. 

"Begin unto my God, with timbrels, 
Sing unto my Lord, with cymbals, 
Adapt unto him a new psalm ; 
Exalt him and call upon his name. 
For a God who decideth battles, is the Lord; 
For into his camps in the midst of the people he hath delivered me out 

of the hands of my persecutors. 
Assur came out of the mountains of the north, 
He came with ten thousands of armies ; 
The multitudes thereof stopped the torrent ; 
Their horsemen covered the hills. 
He threatened that he would burn up my border, 
That he would kill my young men with the sword, 
That he would dash "the suckling children against the ground, and make 

the children a pre}-, and the virgins a spoil ; 
But the almighty Lord hath disappointed them by the hand of a woman; 
The mighty one did not fall by young men, 
Neither did the sons of Titans sit upon him ; 

But Judith, the daughter of Marari, weakened him with her beauty. 
For the exultation of the oppressed in Israel, 
She put off her garments of widowhood, 
She anointed herself with ointment, 
She bound her hair with a filet, 
She took a linen garment to deceive him, 
Her sandals ravished his eyes, 
Her beauty took his mind prisoner ; 
So the sword passed through his neck. 
Persians quaked at her boldness, 
And the Medes were rent asunder at her hardihood. 
Then my humbled one shouted for joy, 
And my weak ones cried aloud and were astonished; 
They lifted up their voice and took to flight; 
Sons of damsels pierced them through, and wounded them as fugitive's 

children. 
They perished before the embattled hosts with my Lord. 
I will sing unto my God a new song. 
Oh, Lord, thou art great and glorious, 
Wonderful in strength and invincible. 



340 Women of the Bible 

Let all creatures praise thee 

For thou speakest and they were made, 

Thou sentest thy spirit and created them, 

There is none can resist thy voice; 

The mountains shall be moved from their foundations, 

Th,e rocks shall melt like wax at thy presence ; 

Yet thou art merciful to them that fear thee; 

For all sacrifice is too little for a sweet savor unto thee, 

All the fat is not enough for burnt offerings ; 

But he that feareth the Lord is great at all times." 

The story concludes by telling us that Judith gave all the spoil 
which she had received, as an offering to the Lord in Jerusalem. 
She afterwards returned to her own home, remained in her own 
land, and was honored throughout all the country. She lived to 
be a hundred and five years of age, and although many sought her 
she never married again. When she died they mourned for her 
seven days. "And there was none that made the children of 
Israel afraid any more in the days of Judith, nor for a long time 
after her death." 

"The object of the writer, no doubt, was to show by this 
interesting story that as long as God's people walk in his com- 
mandments fearlessly, no matter how distressing the circumstances 
in which they may be temporarily placed, the Lord will not suffer 
the enemy to triumph over them, but in due time appear for their 
deliverance and cause even those who are not Jews to acknowledge 
that the God of Israel is the only true God." 




THE MASTER 



Jkto Cestament Women 



Clts;atietf)===tl3e Jflotfjer of tfje 

Jforerunner 



"Oh, say to mothers, what a holy charge 
Is theirs ! With what a queenly power their love 
Can rule the fountain of the new-born mind ! 
Warn them to wake at early dawn and sow 
Good seed before the world hath sown her tares; 
Nor in their toil decline, that angel bands 
May put their sickles and reap for God, 
And gather in his garner." 



<£It*abetf) — tfje jWotfjer of tfje forerunner 



THE last of the prophets of the Old Testament canon, Mala- 
chi, made the divine announcement, "Behold, I will send 
you Elijah the prophet before the coming of the great and 
dreadful day of the Lord." Some of the Jews really thought the 
old Elijah who had appeared on Mount Carmel would come again. 
When the • forerunner came, it was in the spirit and power of 
Elijah. He came four hundred years after the announcement had 
been made, and at a remarkable period in the world's history. The 
Jews were badly scattered. The Roman Empire had covered the 
civilized world, extending from Spain to the borders of Judea. It 
was a dark day to God's people. The Jewish nation was under 
the Roman yoke, and the church was in a low state of spirituality. 
Formalism prevailed in its religious ceremonials. For four hun- 
dred years the voice of prophecy had been hushed in silence, while 
here and there was a loving heart looking and waiting for the 
"consolation of Israel." During these days, God had been pre- 
paring for the advent of his Son, and the "fullness of time" has 
now arrived. 

The priests since the time of David, more than a thousand 
years before, had been divided into twenty-five courses known as 
"houses" and "families." Of the original courses, however, only 
four, each numbering about a thousand members, returned from 
Babylon after the captivity. Out of these, the old twenty-four 
courses were reconstituted with the same names as before. The 
course of Abia was the eighteenth of the twenty-four into which 
the priesthood was divided. Each course ministered for one 
week from the Sabbath to the following Sabbath, beginning with 
the Sabbath morning service. Not only was the original assign- 
ment of the time of service of the twenty-four courses determined 
by lot, but the work of each priest was determined in the same 
manner, who should kill the sacrifice, who sprinkle the blood, who 
burn the incense. This lot was cast every week, the members of 
the course meeting for the purpose in a room in the temple. 



344 Women of the Bible 

* 

There was a time in their history when it was a very great 
honor to be numbered among the priesthood, but they also had 
become affected by the general corruption of the times. "As a 
class, they were blind guides of the blind. The conuption and 
demoralization of the order, especially in its higher ranks, grew 
mure and more complete. The pride, the violence, the if religion 
and luxury of this ecclesiastical aristocracy already, at the begin- 
ning of our era, pointed to the excesses ere long reached. . . 
The high priests themselves were ashamed of their most sacred 
functions. The having to preside over sacrifices was thought by 
some so repulsive and degrading that they wore silken gloves when 
officiating, to keep their hands from touching the victims. Given 
to gluttony, the special vice of their Roman masters, they also 
like them abandoned themselves to luxury, and oppressed the 
poor to obtain the means for indulgence. Josephus tells us that 
they even sent their servants to the threshing floors and took away 
by force the tithes that belonged to the priest, beating those who 
resisted, and that thus not a few poorer priests died from want." 

And yet in spite of the evil influences by which they were sur- 
rounded, there were some who were patiently waiting and looking 
for the "consolation of Israel." Whatever others might do, "they 
with steadfastness of purpose worshipped God and kept his com- 
mandments." As, in the days of Elijah, when the great prophet 
complained that he was left alone in the land (his countrymen 
having in a body gone over to idolatry), God was able to inform 
him that there were seven thousand in Israel who had not bowed 
the knee to Baal, so in this dark age there were scattered saints in 
every part of the land— Elisabeths, Josephs, Marys, ^ Simeons, 
Annas— who were keeping the fire of true religion unextinguished. 
Even in the temple, the focus of evil, a man was to be found like 
Zacharias, who, when he had come up to Jerusalem in the order 
of his course to fulfil the order of his priesthood, and when he was 
chosen by lot to burn incense— the sign that the prayers of Israel 
were ascending to heaven at the hour of prayer— did not merely 
perform the ceremony, but accompanied the mechanical act with 
such fervent intercessions that an archangel was attracted from 
heaven to assure him that his prayers were heard." 

There came up from Hebron to take his place in the course of 
Abia and to perform his week of service in the temple, a man 



Elisabeth — the Mother of the Forerunner 345 

named Zacharias, meaning whom God remembers. He had left 
behind him at home a childless wife, Elisabeth by name (wor- 
shiper of God), like himself advanced in years. She was of the 
family of Aaron as was her husband, hence both of them of noble 
descent. They had not been led away from the true path by the 
corrupting influences which they saw all about them, but they kept 
the faith for "they were both righteous before God, walking in 
all the commandments and ordinances of the Lord blameless." 
In spite of the fact that they belonged to a priestly ancestry run- 
ning back through hundreds of years, and of the consciousness 
that they were trying to live godly lives, there was still a grief in 
the hearts of both of them. Elisabeth had no child, and in our day 
it is hard to realize how much this meant to her. "Give me chil- 
dren or I die," was the burden of every childless Jewish mother's 
heart. To have no child was considered as a punishment from the 
hand of God. The birth of a child was a special blessing, for it 
prevented the name of the father from being cut off from among 
his brethren. With many, no doubt, there was the hope that the 
Messiah might come into their family. These two aged people 
seemed to have made it the burden of their prayers, and yet no 
child had been granted to them. The hour of Providence had not 
yet come. The fullness of time when the Messiah should appear 
had been determined, and Zacharias and his wife had to wait. 
"When the child did come, in a special sense he was the gift of God. 
There were said to have been twenty thousand priests in the 
days of Christ, and it could therefore very rarely, probably never, 
fall to the lot of the same priest twice to offer incense. Hence this 
would have been, quite apart from the vision, the most memorable 
day in the life of Zacharias." The temple building was divided 
into two portions, the holy, and the most holy place, into which 
latter the high priest alone could enter, and he only once a year on 
the great day of atonement. Doors softly shut in this awful cham- 
ber of silence and dark emptiness, for it had no windows, and 
was further secured by a huge curtain of many-colored Babylonian 
tapestry hanging outside the doors. The golden altar of incense 
stood between the table of shewbread and the golden candlestick 
in the holy place before the curtain or veil that separated it from 
the holy of holies. It was made of fine wood, overlaid with gold. 
The fire for burning the incense was obtained from the altar of 



346 Women of the Bible 

burnt offering, which stood outside the sanctuary in the court of 
the priests. The censer, or vessel in which the coals were borne 
and the incense burned, was probably a shallow pan. Robed in 
white, and with unsandled feet, Zacharias, the priest, with two 
attendants solemnly approached the altar of burnt offering, one 
filling the golden censer with half a pound of sweet smelling 
incense, the other bearing the golden vessel with burning coals 
from the altar. Turning from the altar, slowly and reverently 
they passed within the holy place to the altar of incense. On this 
the two attendants spread the coals and arranged the incense, then 
left Zacharias alone and motionless in the dim light of the seven- 
branched candlestick till the sound of a bell rung by a priest at 
the altar of burnt offering in the court where he was sacrificing a 
lamb told him that the moment had come to burn the incense. The 
people without now offered silent prayer. It was while the fra- 
grant smoke arose with the prayers of the people that the angel 
presented himself to the eye of Zacharias. 

He stands with uplifted hands, joining in the prayers offered by 
the silent multitude without. He prays no doubt that the sins of 
the nation, his own sins, and the sins of his household might be 
forgiven, and that the long looked-fo>r Messiah, the hope of Israel 
might soon appear. While in this attitude, an angel appears, half- 
veiled by the fragrant smoke which, curling upwards, filled the 
place. It is not strange that this lone priest is filled with fear and 
troubled as if the body shook with the unwonted agitation of the 
soul. Fear of the supernatural seems to be instinctive with all of 
us. The stout-hearted Gideon had trembled at the sight of an 
angel. Manoah had expected to die after a similar vision, and 
when Daniel saw the very angel now before Zacharias, "there 
remained no strength in him." "Had Zacharias thought how the 
skies rejoice at a sinner's repenting, how the angels are always 
near us when we pray, how they bear our prayers into the pres- 
ence of God, and how at last they guide the souls of the just to 
everlasting joy, he would have rejoiced even while he trembled." 

The angel does not at first announce his name, but seeks to 
quiet the heart of the priest by his words, "Fear not." He then 
makes known his message, speaking words easily understood. His 
prayer had been answered. The Messiah would now be revealed, 
and the faithful priest who had been looking for him so long 



Elisabeth — the Mother of the Forerunner 347 

should be honored by a relationship to him. He had long desired 
a son; his wish would now be gratified, and the son to be born 
should go before the Messiah and prepare his way. He should 
have joy and gladness in the possession of this son. He would be 
great in the sight of Him who judgeth not by outward appearances 
but by the heart. His appetites would be brought into subjection 
and his spiritual nature would be supreme. He would turn away 
from strong drink, and the power of the Holy Spirit would be 
upon him from the very day of his birth. He would carry the 
message of a coming Christ to the people, and many of them would 
turn to the Lord. He would go before the Messiah with the power 
of another Elijah; he would turn the hearts of the fathers, the 
Israelites, to the Gentiles, the children — apostate, prodigal out- 
cast, but still children. He would make ready a people prepared 
for the Lord. Those who hear him will gladly receive the Mes- 
siah ; those who reject the forerunner will also reject the King 
when he comes. 

Evidently Zacharias was no visionary enthusiast who imag- 
ined simply what he desired. The thing seemed to him impossible, 
for he and his wife were past the period when they might expect 
children, and he desired some evidence that this would really 
happen. The testimony of an angel in such a place should have 
been proof enough, but we are all slow to believe even the testi- 
mony of heavenly messengers. Lie was a priest and from his 
youth up had been trained in the knowledge and service of God, 
and this conduct indicated a lack of faith on his part. As a sign 
to him that the angel had come from God and that what he had 
promised would be fulfilled, and as a judgment upon him for not 
accepting the truth, he should be dumb and not able to speak until 
the period should arrive when this thing would be performed. In 
the meantime, the people outside, who were in the attitude of 
prayer, became alarmed at the priest's delay. He ordinarily re- 
mained only long enough to burn the incensed His appearance at. 
last explained to them the delay. It was customary to lift his 
hands over the whole congregation to give with his lips the bless- 
ing of the Lord and to glorify his name. They bowed themselves 
down a second time to worship, that they might receive a blessing 
from the most high. They could receive no blessing that day, for 
the priest was speechless and he could no longer minister in his 



348 - Women of the Bible 

course. From something in his appearance or the expression of 
his face, they concluded he had seen a vision. 

4s soon as his work was completed Zacharias returns to his 
home in Hebron. "His journey, if it was in October as seems 
most likelv, would lead him through the cheerful scenes of the 
grape harvest, a great event even yet in the Hebron district. Had 
it been in April at the spring service, the stony hills and deep red 
or yellow soil of the valleys through which he had to pass would 
have been ablaze with bright colors. Towns of stone houses, of 
which the ruins still remain, rise flat-roofed from the hillsides or 
from their tops, in sight of each other all the way. Fields with 
stone walls now in the autumn lay idle after the harvest or were 
being resown ; but the vineyards which spread far and wide over 
valley and sloping height, resounded with voices, for the houses 
were wellnigh forsaken to gather the grapes." He reaches his 
home in due time and makes known to his wife the great honor 
that shall come to their humble home. No doubt the wife rejoiced 
as did every Jewish woman at the prospect of children ; but during 
these early months she most likely lived in retirement, probably 
to avoid the curious inquiries of her neighbors in these perilous 
times, or because a devotional retirement was best suited for the 
one who was to be the favored mother of a son so sacredly set 
apart for a holy life and for high and honored duties. 

Six months after this time, this same angel, Gabriel, is sent to 
Nazareth. Here lived- a woman named Mary, who was betrothed 
to a man named Joseph, of the house of David. Possibly while 
she is praying he enters her chamber, where the presence of a man 
would have been very startling at any time, and with the usual 
salutation tells her that she is highly favored and that the Lord is 
with her She was perplexed at the statement and wondered what 
his presence meant. He tells her that she shall lay aside all her 
fears for the honor which has been sought by all Jewish women 
is now hers ; namely, that she is chosen as the future mother of the 
Ion* looked-for Messiah. Fie says to her, "The Holy Spirit shall 
come upon thee, and the power of the Highest shall overshadow 
thee • therefore thy son shall be called the Son of God and the Lord 
shall give unto him the throne of his father David ; and he shall 
reign "over the house of Jacob forever and of his kingdom there 
shall be no end." To set at rest every doubt which might arise in 



Elisabeth — the Mother of the Forerunner 349 

her mind, he tells her that a miracle no less wonderful than that 
which would happen to herself had already been wrought upon her 
relative Elisabeth. And the angel departed from her. 

What to do in such a position no doubt troubled Mary's heart. 
What so natural under such circumstances for a betrothed maiden 
to do, as to go and consult her kinswoman who had also been 
greatly blessed and confer with her, although she was one hundred 
miles away ? This shows that Mary was a woman of no little force 
of character, to undertake such a journey which would not be unat- 
tended with danger. In all human probability she made this 
journey alone. It could not have been with her betrothed hus- 
band, although the painters often so represent it, for this would 
have been in opposition to the customs of the age. She may pos- 
sibly have gone at the time of some of the festivals when friends 
and neighbors were going to Jerusalem. Here she would meet 
with Zacharias who would be in attendance even if not performing 
any duty, and when he returned home she would accompany him. 

Elisabeth had learned from Zacharias that her son was "to 
make ready a people prepared for the Lord." No doubt during 
these six months since the information had come to her, she had 
often pondered not only over the work of the son to whom she was 
to give birth, but also who was to be the greater One whose path 
he was to prepare. When her relative came from the lowly home in 
Nazareth, by the emotions evinced by the babe in her own womb 
(which divine light from heaven enabled her to properly interpret) 
she was convinced that she whose womb contained the cominsr 
Messiah stood before her. Impressed with this conviction, she 
uttered in the moment of joyful salutation, "Blessed art thou 
among women, and blessed is the fruit of thy womb. And whence 
is this to me, that the mother of my Lord should come to me?" 
Following this, Mary breaks out in a strain of exalted feeling, and 
to this feeling we owe the earliest and grandest of our hymns, 
the Magnificat. 

Mary remained three months with these aged friends. These 
were interesting months to both of them, as they communed to- 
gether of the visits of the angel and of the great honor which had 
been put upon them. As the time of Elisabeth's confinement drew 
nigh, Mary returned to her own home, as it might have been incon- 
venient for her to have remained. At the appointed time the child 



350 Women of the Bible 

of Elisabeth was born. Her friends and neighbors came in to 
rejoice with her because the Lord had shown great mercy to her 
in delivering her from the reproach of childlessness. On the 
eighth day the child was to be circumcised, and at this time he 
received his name. It was proposed by their neighbors that he 
should be called Zacharias, after the name of his father. This was 
not a customary thing, but there were occasions when it was done, 
and this seemed an appropriate occasion. These people are old, 
the father's work will soon be done, and under the circumstances in 
which the child was born it seemed best to some that he should 
perpetuate the name of his father. The father could not speak, 
but no doubt long ere this had communicated to Elisabeth that 
the child should be called John. She so insisted, but those present, 
not being aware of this fact, were amazed, and objected that there 
were none of their family that bore that name. This is an indica- 
tion that it was customary with the Jews, as with us, to name chil- 
dren after their forefathers or living members of the family. An 
appeal was finally made to the father, and he by signs intimated 
that he wished for a "writing table" and he wrote on it, "His name 
is John." This table was much like one of our slates. Sometimes 
it was of lead, the writing on which was done with a .stylus, and 
could be beaten out when not needed. Sometimes it was composed 
of a thin board covered with wax on which also the characters 
were traced with a stylus. 

For nine months this man Zacharias had been dumb, and his 
neighbors may have supposed that he was suffering from some 
paralytic attack and would never recover. Imagine their astonish- 
ment] when he had written the child's name, to find this mouth 
which had been closed so long now begin to speak, and his first 
words were to praise the Lord for the birth of a son and for his 
restoration to speech. The circumstances surrounding the affair 
and the words uttered by the father excited no little interest on 
the part of those present. These matters were talked about, and 
the. story of his birth went out through the hill country of Judea. 
This was the section most prejudiced by education and by the in- 
fluence of the hierarchy, and by these special means God was 
already preparing them for the coming of his Son. Thus the 
infant son of Zacharias began to prepare the way of the Lord, even 
before the Lord was born into the world. 



Elisabeth — the Mother of the Forerunner 351 

Of the after years of this promising child until he reached the 
years o£ manhood, nothing is told us save that "the child grew, 
and waxed strong in spirit, and was in the deserts till the day of 
his shewing unto Israel." As the son of a priest and destined for 
the priestly office, he would now learn all about the temple service. 
He would with his parents visit the temple, whose pinnacles he 
could see from his own Hebron. Living thus almost under the 
shadow of the temple, he would be in the center of things rigid 
and intolerant. His parents were religious in the best sense ; they 
did justly, loved mercy, and w T alked humbly before God. With 
such influences at home, the. son would grow up not only as a priest 
but as a prophet, anxious to devote his time and his powers to a 
reformation among his people and to the bringing of them back to 
the religion of their fathers. 

His parents were old when he was born, and they must have 
been very old when he reached the age when he could take his 
place among the officiating priesthood. It is more than likely they 
were both dead at this time, and having no brothers or sisters, the 
death of his parents would break up the home and supply a reason 
for his withdrawal into the desert. This was not an unusual thing 
in that age. Many pious and earnest people at that period became 
disgusted with the corruption of the times and retired to the 
deserts, becoming teachers of religion and gathering a body of 
disciples around them. Josephus says of one of these men, whose 
disciple he became : "Not satisfied however with the knowledge 
thus acquired, on hearing of one named Banus, who spent his life 
in the desert wearing such clothing as might be had from trees, 
eating the food which the ground spontaneously supplied, and 
using frequent ablutions of cold water by day and by night for the 
purpose of purification, I took him as my exemplar; and having 
continued with him three years and attained my object, I returned 
to the city." 

How long John remained in the quiet of the home in Hebron 
before he went worth to perform the work which was nearest his 
heart, we do not know. But while at home we are sure a mother so 
devoted as this would have much to do in molding the character of 
her boy, in awakening within him a love for a religion more pure 
and sincere than he was accustomed to see in much of the cere- 
monial observances about the temple. She would fill his mind 



352 Women of the Bible 

with her conception of the Messiah, whose way be was to prepare, 
and would awaken within him an enthusiasm to bring back to his 
service and worship, the nation which had drifted into cold form- 
alism, if not indeed into idolatry. How well she did her work is 
shown in the power with which he drew men to him and inspired 
them to better things and the courage with which he stood up 
against wrongdoing and faced death rather than to compromise 

with wickedness. m 

Some have wondered how this life, if determined beforehand, 
could be influenced and changed and directed by even a mother's 
counsels. This question has been answered as follows by one 
writer ■ "It is only by means of human cooperation that the divine 
purpose in any life can be fulfilled. Any one also may frustrate 
the grace of God. Multitudes do so, and not seldom the most 
gifted. The light of genius is to them a light that leads astray; 
their talents are misspent and become a curse instead of a blessing ; 
and they will appear before the judgment seat with the work un- 
done for which they were created. It is just such a great life as 
John's which brings home to the mind the full extent of the 
danger What if he had failed ? What if, yielding to the passions 
of youth or the temptations of the world, he had quenched the 
Spirit and instead of being a prophet to lead his fellow men up to 
God he had been a ringleader in evil, using the force and fascina- 
tion of his genius to lead men down the broad road. Is it conceiv- 
able that he was never tempted, that he never stood trembling at 
the parting of the ways? Is it credible that the preacher of 
repentance did not know that fascination of sin? No man attains 
to a life of honor and usefulness without passing through the 
crisis of decision and fighting many a battle with the world, the 
flesh and the devil. It may not matter so much to the world 
whether or not our life fails ; but it matters much to ourselves, for 
it is the loss of the one chance of living and it is an eternal loss. 

Henceforth we hear nothing of Elisabeth except in and through 
the work of her son. It is probable she did not live until he was 
beheaded, but may have been living when he first went into the 
desert place to prepare himself for his great work. To rebuke 
love of riches would have been idle had he lived in comfort; to 
condemn the hollowness and unreality of life, he must be clear of 
all suspicion of them himself. Men instinctively do homage to 



Elisabeth — the Mother of the Forerunner 353 

self-denying sincerity, and there could be no question as to that 
of John. Jt was felt that he was real. Religion had become a 
matter of forms. Men had settled into a round of externals, as if 
all religion centered in these. Decencies and proprieties formed 
the substance of human life. But John showed that there was at 
least one man with whom religion w T as an everlasting reality." 

It is no wonder such a man made an amazing success of his 
mission. He had nothing to lose but his life, and he cared for 
nothing but the faithful discharge of his duty. Hunger and thirst 
and nakedness had no doubt been his familiar friends, and he who 
had faced the terrors of the desert so long would quail before noth- 
ing else. "What to him was a scowling Pharisee, or a mocking 
Sadducee, or a fawning publican, or a rough soldier, or a riotous 
mob ? These were jocund, cheerful sights to one who had roamed 
among the wild beasts of the desert and in the midst of them lay 
down his head under no canopy, and with no defense but the 
canopy and defense of the providence of the Mast High. Around 
a man who can despise accommodations and conveniences and deal 
with nature in ancient simplicity and independence, and move 
amongst her social and religious institutions like a traveler from 
another world, free to judge and censure and approve, as having 
himself nothing at stake — around such a man there is a moral 
grandeur and authority to which none but the narrowest and most 
bigoted minds w T ill refuse a certain awe and reverence. And when 
such a personage assumes to himself divine commission and pub- 
lishes new truth with divine authority and rebukes all wickedness 
and scorns all consequences, he takes by the natural right of the 
wiser, the older, and the better man, a high place above those 
who feel themselves enslaved and enshackled by customs which 
they despised." 

Blessed be the woman who gives birth to, teaches, and trains, 
and rears such a son who never feared the face of man ; and 
blessed be the son of such a sincere, honest, religious, devoted 
mother. He was no weak and wavering man, bending this way 
and that like the tall Jordan reeds. He was no man tricked out in 
splendid dress like the glittering couriers at Tiberias. "Among 
all that have been born of women, a greater and more honored 
that John the Baptist has not risen." 



i$larp===tfje Jfflotfjer of STessug 



V 



"What was, in the beginning of these things, 
Scantly I know by hearing, and such word 
As, sometimes, from the brothers of my Lord 
Or from his mother, fell. But those not apt 
Greatly to speak; since, well nigh to the end, 
Scant "honor found he in his father's house; 
And she who bore him — blessed beyond all 
Of mortal mothers — bore a load besides 
Of love and fear, wonder and reverence, 
So heavy on her heart that her still lips 
Were locked as if an angel held them close. 
Only you saw, if heaven should seek on earth 
Fit mother for its Messenger of grace, 
Fit womb to lock such precious treasure safe,_ 
Those were the eyes — communing with the skies, 
That was the face"— tender and true and pure, 
There was the breast— beautiful, sinless, sweet, 
This was the frame— majestic, maidenly, 
And those the -soft, strong hands, and those the arms, 
And those the knees— bent daily in meek prayer ; 
Whereto the eternal love would needs commit 
The flower of human kind to bud and blow. 
I. who have been that which He found me, hide 
My stained cheeks in my hands, speaking of -her 
Who showed so noble, humble, heavenly. 
So virginal and motherly, so fair, 
The rose of women." 

—Edwin Arnold, in "The Light of the World. 



Maty— tfje jfflotfjer of $t&u$ 



NO woman that ever lived oji the face of the earth has 
been an object of such wonder, admiration, and worship 
as has Mary, the mother of Jesus. Around her, poetry, 
painting, and music have raised clouds of ever-shifting colors, 
splendid as those around the setting sun. "Exalted above the 
earth, she has been shown to us as a goddess, yet a goddess of a 
type wholly new. She is not Venus, not Minerva, not Ceres, not 
Yesta. No goddess of classical antiquity, or of any other myth- 
ology, at all resembles that ideal being whom Christian art and 
poetry present to us in Mary. Neither is she like all of them 
united. She differs from them as Christian art differs from class- 
ical, wholly and entirely. Other goddesses have been worshiped 
for beauty, for grace, for power. Mary has been the goddess of 
poverty and sorrow, of pity and mercy ; and as suffering is about 
the only certain thing in human destiny, she has numbered her 
adorers in every land, and climate, and nation. In Mary, woman- 
hood, in its highest and tenderest development of the mother, has 
been the object of worship ; motherhood, with large capacities of 
sorrow, with the memory of bitter sufferings, with sympathies 
large enough to embrace every anguish of humanity. Such an 
object of revelation has inconceivable power.'' 

The apochryphal accounts concerning her begin even before 
her birth. Her parents, Joachim and Anna, of the royal race of 
David, are childless and are grieved on this account. When 
Joachim brings a double offering to the Lord, he is rejected by 
the priest because "thou hast not begotten issue in Israel." He 
goes into the wilderness and fasts forty days and nights. His 
wife, Anna, also bemoans her condition and prays for a child. 
An angel appears and tells her, "Anna, thy prayer is heard. Thou 
shalt bring forth, and thy child shall be blessed through the 
whole world." The child is born with all manner of prosperous 
signs and omens. When she is three years of age, the daughters 
of Israel are invited to come to the temple that the child may not 



358 Women of the Bible 

turn back from the house of the Lord. "There are floods of pic- 
tures representing the sacred girlhood of Mary. She is vowed 
to the temple service and spins and weaves and embroiders the 
purple and fine linen for sacerdotal purposes. She is represented 
as looked upon with awe and veneration by all the holy women 
who remain in the courts of the Lord, especially by the prophetess 
Anna, who declares to her her high destiny. It is recorded that 
her life was sustained by the ministry of angels, who daily visited 
and brought to her the bread of paradise arid the water of the 
river of life. It is the tradition of the Greek church that Mary 
alone, of all her sex, was allowed to enter the holy of holies and 
pray before the Ark of the Covenant." 

In her fourteenth year, the priest announces to her that it was 
time for her to be given in marriage, but she declined. He 
reported again that he had a message from the Lord, to this 
effect, and she submitted. All the widowers among the people 
are summoned to come, each with a rod in his hand, that the Lord 
might choose one by a sign. St. Jerome says the rods were placed 
in the temple over night, and in the morning Joseph's rod had 
burst forth into leaves and flowers. 

From this time, the wonderful stories in connection with her 
life, continue to grow, and the painter's art is called in to em- 
bellish the theme. Angels bend down the branches of trees to 
give fruit to herself and child. Angels are about her everywhere, 
attending to the simplest duties of life, pouring water on the 
hands of the child, holding his napkin, and playing about him. 
After the resurrection she fades from view, so far as the Bible 
record is concerned, but her career of wonder, from the mythical 
standpoint, seems only to have begun. Before departing on their 
mission, we are told the apostles came to solicit her blessing. 
The circumstances of her death and burial, and the ascension of 
her glorified body to heaven, are detailed at length in these apoch- 
ryphal books. When once started, this "current of enthusiasm for 
the Madonna passed all bounds, and absorbed into itself all that 
belonged to the Savior of mankind. All the pity, the mercy, the 
sympathy of Jesus were forgotten, and overshadowed in the image 
of this divine mother. Doctor Pusey shows "how to Mary have 
been ascribed, one after another, all the divine attributes and 
offices. How she is represented as commanding her Son in 



Mary — the Mother of Jesus 359 

heaven with the authority of a mother, and how he is held to owe 
to her submission and obedience. How she, being identified with 
him in all that he is and does, is received with him in the sac- 
rament, and is manifest in the real presence. In short, how, by 
the enormous growth of an idea, there comes to be at last no God 
but Mary/' In the earlier ecclesiastical history, there is no trace 
of this veneration. The apochryphal gospels, the source of most 
of these marvelous stories, do not go back beyond the third or 
fourth century. 

This veneration of Mary finally degenerated into the zvorship 
of Mary, as we find it in the Roman Catholic Church of to-day. 
There is scarcely a shadow of doubt that the origin of the wor- 
ship of Mary is to be traced to these apochryphal legends of her 
birth and death, which, in due time, decorated her life with fables 
and wonders of every kind, and thus furnished a pseudo-historical 
foundation for such worship. In opposition thereto we quote the 
words of Rev. E. Tyler: "We have examined to the utmost of 
our ability and means, the remains of Christian antiquity. Espe- 
cially have we searched into the writings of those whose works 
(A. D. 492) received the approbation of the Pope and his council 
at Rome. We have also diligently sought for evidence in the 
records of the early councils ; and we find all the genuine and un- 
suspected works of Christian writers — not for a few years or in a 
portion af Christendom, but to the end of the first five hundred 
years and more, and in every country in the eastern and western 
empire, in Europe, in Africa, in Asia — testifying as with one 
voice that the writer and their contemporaries knew of no belief 
in the present power of the virgin, and her influence with God ; 
no practice in public or private, of prayer to God through her 
mediation, or invoking her for good offices of intercession, and 
advocacy, and patronage ; no offering of thanks and praise made 
to her ; no ascriptions of divine honor and glory to her name. On 
the contrary, all the writers through those ages testify that to 
the early Christians, God was the only object of prayer, and 
Christ the only heavenly mediator and intercessor in whom they 
put their trust." 

Turning away from the nauseous stones of the past, these 
visions of the over-heated imagination, we come back to the New 
Testament teaching, where alone we shall find any reliable in- 



350 Women of the Bible 

formation concerning this one who was so highly favored and 
blessed among women. We are sorry to say, the record touching 
the mother of the Christ is like that concerning her own personal 
appearance, a very meager one. 

It would be natural to suppose that the woman selected to give 
birth to this divine child, who should be his example, his teacher, 
his companion for many years, would be a woman of rare excel- 
lence of character, and of no little mental ability. He may have 
inherited from that mother something of her own moral fiber and 
force of character, as we inherit from our mothers. By her 
faithful teaching this child was to grow daily in wisdom and 
stature, and was to learn all those lessons which inexperienced 
childhood needs to know. The language he used came from her 
lips Under her inspiration, he would drink m those wonderful 
stories of Jewish history ; he would listen to her explanations of 
the prophets, and by her be taught to chant the sacred songs of 
Zion She, more than any other, would make rea to him the 
history of his own people, and how God in the past had wonder- 
fully dealt with them. During the years that preceded his en- 
tering upon his life work, he lived in daily communion with her, 
subject to her authority, learning to obey her, and willing to fol- 
low her guidance. A woman who came so near the person of 
Christ and who was so identified with him during a large part 
of his life, must of necessity be a person that would interest every 

Christian heart. 

We may fairly infer something of her nature from her na- 
tionality "A fine human being is never the product of one gener- 
ation but rather the outcome of a growth of ages. Mary was the 
offspring and flower of a race selected, centuries before from the 
finest physical, stock'of the world, watched over, trained, and cul- 
tured by divine oversight, in accordance with every physical and 
mental' law for the production of sound and vigorous mental and 
bodily conditions. Her blood came to her in a channel of descent, 
over which the laws of Moses had established a watchful care ; a 
race wherein marriage had been sacred, family life a vital point 
and motherhood invested by a divine command with an especial 
sanctity. She was of the royal line of David, and poetic visions 
and capabilities of high enthusiasm were in her very lineage. 
The traditions of the holv and noble women of our country s 



Mary — the Mother of Jesus 361 

history were all open to her as sources of inspiration, Miriam, 
leading the song of national rejoicing on the shores of the Red 
Sea; Deborah, mother, judge, inspirer, leader, and poet of her 
nation ; Hannah, the mother who won so noble a son of heaven 
by prayer; the daughter of Jephtha, ready to sacrifice herself to 
her country ; Huldah, the prophetess, the interpreter of God's will 
to kings ; Queen Esther, risking her life for her people ; and 
Judith, the beautiful and chaste deliyerer of her nation — these 
were the spiritual forerunners of Mary, the ideals with which her 
youthful thoughts must have been familiar." 

She lived at a time when her nation was in bondage and her 
people humiliated. They had been trodden under foot of the Gen- 
tiles, and were now and had been for a time at the mercy of pagan 
Rome. Herod, who was the. nation's ruler, while ostensibly a Jew, 
~was cruel and brutal, using his power for his own personal gratifi- 
cation and the humiliation of his enemies. Is it not likely that she, 
like many other Judean women, identified herself with the nation 
in its struggle for deliverance, and waited, and hoped, and prayed 
for the Deliverer to come? She was of royal blood, inheriting the 
traditions of her race, and, like Simeon and Anna, she no doubt 
studied the prophecies and waited for the salvation of Israel. "We 
can imagine them as in but not of the sordid and vulgar world of 
Nazareth, living their life of faith and prayer, or mournful mem- 
ories of past national glory and longing hopes for the future." 

At this time Galilee was a very fertile region, well cultivated, 
and covered with populous towns and villages. It was the center 
of every known industry, and the land over which was carried the 
world's commerce. One of the roads along which the caravan 
traveled was through this very town of Nazareth. It was situated 
partly on the side of a hill not far from Mount Tabor, whose 
summit was readily seen. To the north was "dewy Hermon," made 
famous by the sweet singer of Israel, and toward the south was 
Gilboa, where Saul went down in defeat. The hill in the rear of 
the present town commands one of the finest prospects in Pales- 
tine. Keil supposes that in Christ's time this town must have had 
a population of at least ten thousand souls, but Josephus places 
the number near twenty thousand. Men of all nations, busy with 
other thoughts than those that interested the people, would congre- 
gate on its streets, and through them would come to these citizens 



362 Women of the Bible 

thoughts of the outside world. It was one of the centers where 
congregated a portion of the priests when not on duty. Thus the 
town of Mary at this time was a place of no little importance. 

At the time of which we are speaking, Mary was betrothed to 
Joseph and according to Jewish law was regarded as his wife, 
although he had not yet a husband's rights over her. The betrothal 
was formally made with rejoicings in the home of the bride. To 
make it legal, the bridegroom gave his betrothed a piece of money, 
before witnesses, with the words, "Lo, thou art betrothed to me." 
It was virtually marriage and could only be broken off by a bill 
of divorcement. Yet the betrothed did not go at once to her 
husband's house. To give her time for preparation, and to soften 
the pain of parting from her friends, or perhaps, in part, to let 
them get a longer benefit of her household services, an interval 
elapsed before the final ceremony. It might be many weeks, or 
months, or even a whole year." 

A devout Jewess, as she seems to have been, she would be 
very careful not to neglect the regular periods for worship. The 
stated times for morning and evening sacrifice would find her in 
the quiet of her own chamber engaged in private prayer. While 
thus occupied one day, one in the form of a man, the angel Gabriel, 
stands before her and courteously greets her with the words: 
"Hail, highly favored, the Lord be with thee; blessed art thou 
among women." Such an appearance would seem strange at any 
time, and Mary was troubled "and cast in her mind what manner 
of salutation this should be." There was no special fear nor 
stupor, no marked disturbance of mind, but she reflected what 
this could possibly mean. Whatever temporary excitement there 
may have been is soon allayed however by the quieting words of 
her visitor. She is to lay aside all alarm, for he is come to tell her 
that she is blessed above all Jewish women. "And, behold, thou 
shalt conceive in thy womb, and bring forth a son, and shalt call 
his name Jesus. He shall be great, and shall be called the Son of 
the Highest : and the Lord God shall give unto him the throne of 
his father David: and he shall reign over the house of Jacob for 
ever ; and of his kingdom there shall be no end." 

To get the full force of this message and its influence on the 
maiden who now heard it, we must remember that among the 
Jewish nations there was one hope never lost sight of but always 




THF, ANNUNCIATION 



Mary— the Mother of Jesus 363 

before the mind, that either one of them might become the mother 
of the Messiah. Even Eve in the joys of motherhood looked thus 
upon her son and called him Cam, meaning "possession," for, she 
said, "I have gotten a man from the Lord." Luther, with others, 
thinks a better expression of her statement would be, "I have 
gotten a man, even Jehovah." In her mind, no doubt, was the 
thought of the promise made that the seed of the woman should 
bruise the serpent's head. From that hour, down through the 
ages until the moment when the angel stood before Mary, that 
thought had occupied a prominent place in the expectations of the 
people. It must have been in the thought of this Jewish girl, who 
was of the royal family through whom it had been foretold the 
Messiah should come. Especially would it be thought of now, for 
everywhere the people were on tiptoe with expectations, believing 
that the long-hoped-for desire of Israel was soon to be realized. 

This record is given us by Luke and must have been related by 
Mary herself, for the facts could be known alone to her. "She 
was in solitude without a human witness. From her the whole 
detail must have come. It gives not only the interview, but the 
passing thoughts and emotions of her mind. She was agitated and 
cast about, what the visit meant. We see in all this that sensitive, 
calm, and balanced nature which was characteristic of Mary. 
Habitually living in contemplation of that spirit world revealed in 
the Scriptures, it was no very startling thing to her to see an 
angel standing by ; her thoughts had walked among the angels too 
long for that ; but his enthusiastic words of promise and blessing 
agitated her soul." 

A woman of weak character would have been overcome by 
such a remarkable appeal to her ambition, her national pride, and 
her religious enthusiasm. She would have been bewildered by the 
announcement that she, a peasant girl of Nazareth, in humble 
circumstances of life, is to be the recipient of the special honor for 
which Jewish maidens of royal blood and high position have longed 
and prayed through the generations. She does not doubt the 
angel's statement, but with earnestness of purpose looks for fur- 
ther information. "Then said Mary to the angel, How shall this 
be, seeing that I am yet a virgin?" The angel replied to her, "The 
Holy Ghost shall come upon thee, and the power of the Highest 
shall overshadow thee : and therefore also that holy progeny which 



364 Women of the Bible 

shall be born of thee shall be called the Son of God." As she was 
well read in the Old Testament Scriptures, no doubt she remem- 
bered and applied, as she had never applied before, the prophecy 
which had been made to Israel centuries before, and which again 
and as?in she had heard read in the synagogues: "Behold, a 
virgin shall be with child, and shall bring forth a son, and they 
shall call his name Immanuel." 

A woman who was betrothed, when betrothal was legally 
equivalent to marriage, must have seen the danger which would 
come to her reputation, if not indeed her life ; for a violation of 
that would be treated as adultery and would be punished by death 
Who would listen to her story, and how should she acquit herself 
in the eyes of her intended husband? To be the mother of the 
Messiah would indeed be very high honor, but how it would com- 
promise a virtuous maiden before her countrymen ! But the God 
in whom she trusted could deliver. She places herself in God s 
hands as did her Son himself in his last agonies, and modestly 
says, "Behold, the handmaid of the Lord ; be it unto me according 

to his word." ■ 

Various opinions have been held as to the purpose of the divine 
wisdom in causing the Savior to be born of a betrothed rather than 
a disengaged virgin. It would seem to be fitting that the mother of 
the Messiah should have some one to vouch for her purity and 
to act as her protector and the foster-father of her child ; that also 
that he should be one, who, as heir of the throne of David, would 
o-ive to her adopted son the legal rights to the royal dignity ; while 
of all persons he was most interested in resisting the claims ot a 

pretender. ... , i • 

It would not have been strange if some misgivings had arisen 
in her mind when it was announced to her what should happen. 
The visitor sets this all at rest by telling her that a miracle no leSs 
wonderful than the one which should come upon her, had been 
wrought upon her cousin Elisabeth. What so natural, under all 
these circumstances, as to find her kinswoman whom the Lord had 
so -ready blessed six months before. The place where she resided 
was a hundred miles away, and a portion of the way to it was 
throuo-h a rugged country. She would go, not simply to com- 
municate the joyful news of the blessing about to come upon her 
to her cousin, not for sympathy and advice as to how she should 



Mary — the Mother of Jesus 365 

satisfy her betrothed husband, but a confirmation of the statement 
that Elisabeth was about to become a mother would establish the 
truthfulness' of the message made to her. 

Sh£ concludes to make the journey. She most likely traveled 
on foot, as was the custom of her people, and especially as she was 
poor. It would hardly have been safe for her to go alone, so she 
most likely went with, a caravan, attending some one of the 
national feasts. Leaving the beautiful town of Nazareth, she 
would journey southward through the plain of Esdraelon, in sight 
of the place where in former times Barak had pitched his tents, 
a\ here Deborah had prophesied, and where the stars in their 
courses had fought against Sisera and had overcome him. She 
would cross Kishon, made red with the blood of the slain ; she 
would look upon Gilboa, where Saul, in violation of law, went to 
consult the witch, and where he heard of his coming downfall ; in 
the valley of Jezreel, she would call to mind the dreadful fate of 
Jezebel, the wicked queen ; she would pass near Jacob's well, where 
she would see the tomb of the steadfast Joseph; would stop at 
Bethel, where her ancestor Jacob had seen a vision of angels ; 
would enter Jerusalem, crowned with its magnificent temple, the 
glory of the world. Here most likely she would meet Zacharias, 
the priest, the husband of Elisabeth, who would conduct her 
through Bethlehem, where Ruth had gleaned in the fields of Boaz, 
and soon after she would reach Hebron, where lived her cousin 
Elisabeth. 

Whether she went alone on this journey or in company with 
others, it was still a solitary trip to her, for how could she tell any 
of her friends of her purpose in this journey, or of the wonderful 
revelation which had been made to her? How she would ponder 
over all the things said to her and inquire as to their significance, as 
she traveled along. Her son was to sit on the throne of David 
and found a kingdom that should endure forever. She could 
understand that, for, like the rest of her nation, she only thought 
of the Messiah as a Jewish king who should bring back the lost 
glories of her race and make the Jewish nation triumphant over 
the heathen world. But her child should also be called the Son 
of the Highest, the Son of God. She must certainly have been 
perplexed as to the meaning of these words. Like the rest of us, 
she must grow into the meaning of many things through a process 



366 Women of the Bible 

of education. Years after this period, when her Son remained 
behind in the temple to talk with the learned men 4 she was npt 
sure that she understood his answers to her. At the miracle 
in Cana of Galilee she seems not to have fully understood her 
relation to him. She does not seem to have risen to a full realiza- 
tion of his work while he lived, yet the love of a mother for her 
child brought her now to the foot of the cross. But in such 
slowness to believe and such abidingly imperfect conceptions, 
she was only on a footing with those who enjoyed habitual inter- 
course with him, hearing his words and seeing his miracles day 
bv day • for even the disciples remained to the end Jewish peas- 
ants in their ideas respecting him, thinking that he was only a 
political deliverer of the nation." 

Elisabeth receives her cousin most heartily, and the Holy 
Spirit coming upon her before she hears a word from Mary as to 
the wonderful message which had been brought to her, she 
exclaims "Blessed art thou among women, and. blessed is the 
fruit of thy womb. And whence is this to me, that the mother of 
nw Lord should come to me? . . . And blessed is she that 
hath believed : for there shall be a performance of those things 
which were told her from the Lord." 

"What other mystery in human life is so profound as the 
beginning of life ? From the earliest days women have called 
themselves blessed of God when life begins to palpitate within 
their' bosom. It is not education but nature that inspires such 
tender announcement. Doubtless the Indian woman m such 
periods dwells consciously near to the Great Spirit. Every one of 
a deep nature seems to herself more sacred and more especially 
under the divine care while a new life, molded by the divine hand, 
is springing into being. For of all creative acts, none is so sover- 
eign and divine. Who shall reveal the endless musings, the per- 
petual prophecies of the mother's soul ? Her thoughts dwell upon 
the unknown child-thoughts more in number than the npples of 
the sea upon some undiscovered shore. To others, in such hours, 
woman should seem more sacred than the most so e™ temple , 
and to herself, she must need seem as if overshadowed by the 

Mary's last fear now departs, her hopes are confirmed, and her 
timidity gives place to courage. The prophetic fire falls upon her, 



Mary — the Mother of Jesus 367 

and with quivering lip and flashing eyes she utters in a voice 
tremulous with emotion that immortal song termed the Magnificat 
which the church still cherishes as the first hymn of the new 
dispensation. Some of it seems unconsciously borrowed from the 
Psalms, with which Mary must have been familiar from her 
childhood. Some of the passages are analagous to the song of 
Hannah (I. Samuel 21: 1-10), but there is in this none of the 
personal exultation over the enemies which characterizes the song 
of Hannah and most of the triumphant words of David. Whether 
this was uttered by immediate inspiration in reply to Elisabeth's 
salutations, or composed during her journey from Nazareth, or 
Avas written at a later period of her three months' visit at Hebron, 
does not appear with certainty. 

"My soul doth magnify the Lord, 
And my spirit hath rejoiced in God my Savior. 
For he hath regarded the low estate of his handmaiden; 
For, behold, from henceforth all generations shall call me blessed. 
For he that is mighty hath done to me great things, 
And holy is his name; 
And his mercy is on them that fear him, 
From generation to generation. 
He hath shewed strength with his arm ; 

He hath scattered the proud in the imagination of their hearts. 
He hath put down the mighty from their seats, 
And exalted them of low degree. 
He hath rilled the hungry with good things ; 
And the rich he hath sent empty away; 
He hath holpen his servant Israel, 
In remembrance of his mercy; 
As he spake to our fathers. 
To Abraham and to his seed for ever." 

Three months passed away at the home of Elisabeth before 
Mary ventured to turn her face homeward again. The time for 
the confinement of Elisabeth had arrived, and it might not have 
been convenient for them to entertain her longer. No doubt she 
was loath to return to Nazareth until it was necessa^. Elisabeth 
knew of her great secret and of her innocence, but at Nazareth 
there would be neighbors, as there always are, who would be 
willing to believe evil of her ; and then it would be hard to break 
the news to her betrothed. When she does return, she is sus- 
pected of unfaithfulness to him. He cannot, as a just man, con- 
done so great an offense against good morals and the law of God, 



368 Women of the Bible 

He is kind and merciful, and therefore unwilling to make a public 
example of her. In accordance with the Jewish law of betrothal, 
he may personally annul their contract by giving her a bill of 
divorcement. He had about concluded to do this, when the Lord 
appeared to him in a dream, telling him of the situation and author- 
izing him to complete the marriage, which he did ; and Mary thus 
became his legal wife. 

It would have been supposed that, as these parents lived in 
Nazareth, their child would be born there; but prophecy asserted 
years before that he should be born in Bethlehem, and how 
strangely circumstances conspire to bring it about. An order 
went out from Augustus, the Roman eipperor, that a census of 
the people should be taken, probably for the purpose of assessing 
taxes and determining the military levies. In Palestine this was 
required to be done by tribes and families, to be in harmony with 
their social organization. As Joseph belonged to the tribe of 
Judah and was of the family of David, he came from Nazareth to 
Bethlehem to be enrolled, and his wife came with him. When they 
reached there, the town was already so crowded "there was no 
room for them in the inn." Of that journey we know nothing save 
that they probably traveled over the same road along which Mary 
journeyed on her way to Hebron. The child is born and laid in 
a manger for a cradle. It would be a trial to her, that this wonder- 
ful event should come upon her in the midst of such humble sur- 
roundings, but He who rules over all had so ordered it. 

"Cold on his cradle dewdrops are shining, 

Low lies his head with the beasts of the stall; 
Let. angels adore him, in slumber reclining, 
Maker and monarch and Savior of all." 

Night closes in and sleep falls upon these tired travelers. Sud- 
denly a .company of men appear. Strange things had come to the 
ears of these shepherds of Bethlehem which they communicate to 
others. That babe whose advent had been hymned by an angelic 
choir becomes a subject of no little interest. It is early morn 
now, the place is astir, and men are discussing the incidents of 
the past night. May we not hope that some of these people, at 
least in their hearts, joined with the angels in that Bethlehem 
hymn? The day advances, and soon that holy family are in a 



Mary — the Mother of Jesus 369 

village house over which stood the star of Bethlehem. When the 
wise men from the East had arrived, and "when they were come 
into the house, they saw the young child with Mary, his mother, 
and fell down, and worshipped him : and when they had opened 
their treasures, they presented unto him gifts; gold, and frankin- 
cense, and myrrh." While these remarkable events were occurring, 
it is said, "but Mary kept these things, and pondered them in her 
heart/' May it not be due to the fact that she kept these words 
in her memory and reflected upon them that we have the account 
of these angelic appearances? "The oftener we read this verse 
(Luke 2: 19), the more assured we feel that Mary was the first 
and real author of the whole narrative. This pure, simple, and 
private history was composed by her and preserved for a certain 
time in an oral form, until some one committed it to writing whose 
work fell into the hands of Luke and was reproduced by him in 
Greek." J 

We next find this mother in Jerusalem, going with her husband 
to present her firstborn son in the temple and to offer the humble 
sacrifice appointed for the poor. The child had been circumcised 
when eight days old; thirty-three days have passed since that 
period, and the mother now complies with the law requiring the 
firstborn to be dedicated to the Lord. Poor people could substitute 
two doves or two pigeons for the more costly sacrifice. As the 
parents came to the temple, they met Anna, an aged saint who 
had long been waiting for the consolation of Israel, and she took 
the child in her arms and gave thanks unto the Lord. Simeon, an 
aged prophet, also took the babe in his arms and said : 

"Lord, now lettest thou thy servant depart in peace, 
For mine eyes have seen thy salvation, 
Which thou hast prepared before the face of all people. 
A light to lighten the Gentiles, and the glory of thy people Israel." 

The parents must have been astonished at the things spoken 
concerning their son. How their hearts must have rejoiced at 
the magnificent destiny which was promised, and how it con- 
trasted with his present humble surroundings. The venerable 
old man continued to speak, under the influence of the Holy 
Spirit. ^ "Behold, this child is set for the fall and rising again of 
many in Israel; and for a sign which shall be spoken against; 



370 Women of the Bible 

yea a sword shall pierce through thy own soul also, that the 
thoughts of many hearts may he revealed." What an announce- 
ment that was ! 

"This prophecy must have been a strange enigma to Mary. 
According to the predictions of the angel, her son was to be a 
triumphant king, to reign on the throne of his father David, to 
restore the old national prestige, and to make his people rulers 
over the whole earth. The*great truth that the kingdom was not 
of this world, and the dominion was to be a moral victory ; that 
it was to win through rejection, denial, torture, and a shameful 
death; that the Jewish nation was to be finally uprooted and 
scattered ; all this was as much hidden from the eyes of Mary as 
from those of the whole nation. The gradual unveiling of this 
mystery was to test every character connected with it, by the 
severest wrench of trial. ' The latent worldliness and pride of 
Mary, seemingly good, would be disclosed, and even the poor 
mother would be pierced to the very heart with the anguish of 
disappointed hopes. Such was the prophecy of which the life 
of Mary was a long fulfillment. The slow perplexity of finding 
an entirely different destiny for her son from the brilliant one 
foretold in prophetic symbols, was to increase from year to year, 
till it culminated at the foot of the cross." 

A new danger arises. The wise men were warned in a dream 
that they should not return to Herod, for while he had professed 
to Avant to come to worship the child, he really intended his de- 
struction. Soon after a revelation of coming evil is made to 
Joseph. He is commanded to take the child and his^ mother at 
once and go into Egypt, for Herod was seeking his life. Egypt 
was about three hundred miles distant, was a Roman province, 
was inhabited in part by Jews, and independent of Herod. That 
same night he started. The Hope of the world was not to perish 
at the hand of this murderous ruler. Angered at the treatment 
received from the wise men, Herod sent a band of soldiers to 
Bethlehem, to kill all the male children near the age of the Infant 
whom he most of all dreaded. 

The evangelist gives us none of the incidents of this journey, 
which must have been one of intense interest to the mother, whose 
son, she had been told, was to have a remarkable future, and yet 
thus early in his history she is fleeing from home and country to 



Mary — the Mother of Jesus 371 

save this child from being brutually murdered. What history 
fails to give of this journey has been actively supplied by legends 
and traditions. The painters have made us familiar with the 
idea that the journey was performed by the aid of an ass, on 
which the mother and child rode, while Joseph trudged on before, 
beside, or behind it. This is not an impossible or improbable sup- 
position. The gifts of the Magi would have enabled them to pur- 
chase an animal for the journey. They would probably not travel 
alone, but with others journeying in the same direction, whom 
they may have joined on the road. 

How long they remained, how they spent their time, and 
where they dwelt, cannot be determined by any facts given us. 
Ihe gifts they had received would probably be enough to provide 
for this journey, and to secure Joseph the tools, he needed for his 
trade as a carpenter ; and such a man would be sure, if he re- 
mained long, to find work to be done. There were so many Jews 
here, and they were so free that Mary and Joseph would be less 
among strangers than one would suppose. These Jews would be 
glad to afford employment and refuge to a brother from Palestine. 
Even if they knew that he had fled from Herod, it would not have 
been to his injury, for Herod had no authority here and was 
hated by the Egyptian Jews as much as by his own native sub- 
jects. Some have suggested Memphis as the probable place where 
he settled and remained for one, two, or three years. It was no 
place for Mary and Joseph, and above all, for the child, Jesus, 
to remain longer than was necessary. Egypt was at this time 
the incarnation of heathenism, and the old hatred between Egypt 
and the sons of Israel still survives. Joseph, however, would feel 
that lie needed the same authority for quitting the country that 
he had for entering it. This he soon received, for an angel com- 
manded him to return to the land of Israel, for they were dead 
who sought the young child's life. He returned with the apparent 
intention of settling permanently in Bethlehem, but finding that 
Archelaus had been appointed ruler there, the one who was sup- 
posed to be most like his tyrannical father, he turned aside and 
went back to Nazareth, his former home. 

Pious Israelites, from their earliest years, would accustom 
their children to the requirements of their religion, and hence 
would bring them with them to Jerusalem to the great feasts, As 



r 



372 Women of the Bible 

Mary's son had now reached the age of twelve years it was time 
for him to appear there to take upon himself tne ob hgations of 
the law While the passover was eaten only by males yet the 
week of the feast was a time of universal rejoicing, so that hus- 
bands were accustomed to take their wives as well as their chil- 
dren with them. We can hardly realize the feelings that must 
have been awakened in the mind of this child by this first visit 
to the sacred city. The city itself was holy and worthy of all 
honor but made' still more so by the holiness of the sanctuary 
within its bounds. The multitudes who came from all sections 
to these feasts were almost countless. Every house was crowded 
with pilgrims, and the whole landscape about the city was cov- 
ered with booths to accommodate those who could not be carea 
for in the houses. Such a city, and especially at this time, must 
have made a lasting impression on this boy. Not simply because 
of outward and earthly grandeur, but from his earliest years, 
under Mary's faithful teaching, he had been learning of the won- 
derful blessings conferred on his nation. He may have heard 
something of his remarkable birth, and this would awaken strange 
thoughts in his mind. How anxious he will be to drink m the 
inspiration of the scene, and to gather information from all 
sources to satisfy his spiritual longings. 

The delightful week ends, and Joseph and Mary turn then- 
faces homeward. With the thousands gathered there the con- 
fusion and bustle at starting must have been indescribable It 
would likely be made at night time to escape the intense heat, 
and in the midst of the darkness, relieved only by torches, there 
would be danger of being lost or trampled under foot There 
would be noise and confusion, parents looking and calling tor 
children friends for friends, drivers beating their beasts, and all 
more or 'less excited. As the crowds would get farther from Jeru- 
salem parties going in different directions would branch oft, the 
danger would grow less, and the scenes become more interesting. 
Only when the vast mass began thus to break up, would it be 
possible for any special group to know if their members were all 
safe When Mary and Joseph readied the first night's encamp- 
ment they found their boy was not in this part of the caravan. 
They no doubt missed him earlier, but supposed him to be with 
the other boys, and that he would appear in due time, but he did 



Mary— the Mother of Jesus 373 

not, and they became alarmed. Amid such a crowd he might be 
lost to them forever. The only thing to do was to return to 
Jerusalem and look for him, which city they entered again on the 
evening of the second day, with no little anxiety of mind. 

After anxious and diligent search they found him on the fol- 
lowing day m one of the schools of the rabbis, which were held in 
the courts of the temple. These schools were open, and any one 
entering might ask or propose a question. There seems to have f 
been a number of rabbis present, possibly because this was the 
Passover season. Here his parents found him, sitting on the 
ground with others, at the feet of these distinguished men His 
whrJle soul had become so interested in the law and prophets that 
he had forgotten all his surroundings, his own family, even the 
tligl* of time. It would not have been strange to have found him 
here- during Passover week, but it did amaze them to find him still 
lingering in quest of truth when the feast was over, and when 
not only his own family, but the great body of the pilgrims had 
left the city. \\ ith the zeal common to a mother's love and be- 
cause of her greater nearness to him, she says, "Son, why hast 
thou thus dealt with us? Behold thy father and I have sought 
thee sorrowing." It seems strange to them that one who had 
been so thoughtful, so obedient, who had never before given them 
any special anxiety, should at this time cause them pain and 
alarm. The answer was given with childlike artlessness, and yet 
it must have seemed like a gentle rebuke to them. "How is it that 
you sought me? There was no place where I could so surely be 
as in my Fathers house; there were no matters which could so 
righteously fill my thoughts as his ?" It seemed like the breaking 
lorth of a new light. Her son was outgrowing his childhood 

w;thT t' xt y U ? derst00d not the *e sayings." He returned 
with them to Nazareth and was subject to his parents. He must 
have felt a growing distance between himself and his parents 
yet he remained under their authority as if like other children ' 
The words of Mary's son have a very far reach, indeed 
Mothers find it hard to learn as sons grow up that they have a 
Heavenly Father's work to do in the great world. How soon the 
cord of separation begins to strain under the pressure of daily 
needs There are mothers who must give up sons at a very early 
age-too early-to the pressing duties of the world's work and 



374 Women of the Bible 

conflict They see their boys separate from home, and go into the 
midst of the world without the world's experience, wisdom, en- 
durance, to put their tender years against the world's hardness, 
cunning, and selfishness ; to struggle on and up, or fall out and 
perish by the way. Is it not hard? Is it a wonder mothers shrink 
from and protest against this destiny? Yet, so it must be. The 
world's work must be done. The soul's destiny must be wrought 
out The fledglings must leave the parent nest and spread then 
own wings upon the air. Blessed be that God who spreads his 
divine wings beneath them 'beareth them on wings,' and teaches 
them the mvstery of flight." 

In all this record thus far, and indeed in most of the trans- 
actions of this period, the reader must have been struck with the 
ministration of angels. They announced to Zachanas the birth 
of John the Baptist ; to Marv, that she should become the mother 
of the Messiah ; to the Magi, that they should not return to Herod ; 
they greeted the advent of the Babe with heavenly music ; they 
sent Joseph into Egypt, and later back again into Galilee. 
-Our faith might be put to shame if the scriptural angels bore 
any analogy to those of the rude and puerile histories contained 
in apochrvphal books. But the long line of heavenly visitants 
shines in "'solid brightness, as high above the feeling and preju- 
dices of an early age, as the stars are above the vapors and dust 
of earth. While patriarchs, prophets, and apostles show ail the 
deficiencies of their own period, and are stained with human pas- 
sions, the angelic beings, judged by the most fastidious require- 
ments of these later ages, are without spot and blemish. They are 
not made up of human traits idealized. They are unworldly, of a 
different tvpe, of nobler presence, and of far grander and sweeter 
natures than any living on earth. Their very coming and going 
is not with earthly movement. They suddenly are seen in the air, 
as one sees white clouds round out from the blue sky on a sum- 
mer's day that melt back even as one looks at them. They vi- 
brate between the visible and the invisible. They come without 
motion, they go without flight. They dawn and disappear. Then- 
words are few as the advent chorus, yet is sounding its music, 

through the world." . 

Thus far we have said nothing of the brothers and sisters oi 
our Lord. The names of brothers are given, and allusions are 



Mary— tin- Mother of Jesus 3?5 

made to them in several instances. The term "brethren" was often 
used in the general sense of relatives. Even to this day authorities 
are divided in opinion as to whether these were real brothers or 
not. J. here are several suppositions concerning them One that 
they were children of Joseph by a former marriage; or that thev 
were adopted from a deceased brother's family ; or they were 
children of the sister of the mother of Jesus, and so cousins-ger- 
man to him ; or they were the children of Joseph and Mary and 
so the real brothers of Jesus. Without entering into the argument 
we are inclined to accept the more natural and obvious interpre- 
tation of the language of the evangelists,, that the Lord's brothers 
and sisters were such in the ordinary meaning of the word In 
the case of any other, no hesitation would have been felt to so 
interpret them There was a desire on the part of some, however 
to separate Christ as widely as possible from other men If it 
could be shown that his mother had no other child, that he had no 
brothers or sisters, it would be seen that not only in his own per- 
sonality but in the outward circumstances of his life a line of 
distinction should be drawn between him and all beside But he 
was not brought up as an only child. He was a member of a 
tamily and had the ordinary experiences of childhood 

It is hard to tell when Joseph died. He does not appear again 
* public after the visit to the temple when Jesus was twelve years 
ot age It is generally supposed his death occurred before Tesns 
entered on his public ministry. This has been argued from the 

Si W St TU ra ° "" °S y aPPCared at the marria S e ; " Cana of 
Galilee. There is an old tradition that he died when Jesus was 

eighteen years of age. It is also alleged that he must lave died 
before the crucifixion, or he would have appeared with Mary at 
the cross The absence of Joseph from the public life of Christ 
and the failure to refer to him while "Marv" and "his brethren" 
no unfrequently appear, afford evidence not only of his death 
but of the inferior part which he sustained as a legal father of our 
Lord. He seems to have been a good, kind-hearted man who 
while he supported and protected the family, would leave \7ary 
altogether unrestrained in her actions and allow her to carry out 
the generous impulses of her nature. 

What must have been the ponderings of this mother during 
these eighteen years, for a portion of which time she was likely 



376 Women of the Bible 

a widow while her son remained with her, working at the fathers 
trade and helping, with the other children, to support her? Be- 
fore his birth she had been told that he was "to reign over the 
house of Jacob forever, and of his kingdom there should be no 
end " Does it not seem as if God had forgotten his promise . 
The son of Elisabeth had grown up in the desert, and these two 
sons of destiny seem to have had no communication with each 
other. Later, when Jesus did appear for baptism, John did not 
recognize him. The mother pondered in her heart the wonderful 
sayings concerning him, but there seemed to be no indications oi 
fulfillment When Jesus began his public ministry, neither his 
fellow-townsmen nor his brethren had seen anything in him to 
excite their expectation. ^ 

Years, come and go, and finally the preaching of John the bap- 
tist has set the whole land in motion. His voice came like a 
trumpet tone, calling the people to a new life. Jesus, led by a 
divine impulse, leaves his home, goes to the Jordan, is baptized of 
John and thus initiated into his coming work. He is led into 
the wilderness, where he encountered temptations which were to 
help fit him for life. Thus far he had performed no miracles, and 
assumed no authority as the public teacher. Soon after this event 
he appears with his mother at the wedding in Quia. The mother 
has learned possibly of the change which has passed over her son. 
While he has not yet used his miraculous power, he possesses it. 
After all these years of waiting, in the midst of hope and fear, 
would it be strange if she should want in some manner on this 
remarkable occasion, to see his career of wonderful works begun. 
Mary for some reason seems to be invested with some authority 
in the house The wedding festivities have come to a stand, 
because the wine has failed them. This would be a fitting occa- 
sion for him to show his power, and so, while she does not ask 
him she indirectly suggests to him the thought that is in her 
mind, when she says, "They have no wine." From one usually 
so yielding and tender, comes the apparently abrupt answer, 
"Woman, what have I to do with thee ? Mine hour has not yet 
come " The story is not given in full, and yet evidently there 
was in the mind of the mother an impression that something 
would be done, so she savs to the servants, "Whatever he saith 
unto you, do it." Later there may have come to him a divine 



Mary — the Mother of Jesus 377 

impulse, and what he could not do from simple affection to his 
mother, he could do by divine sanction. This, the first miracle 
in the Christian dispensation, was wrought in honor of the 
family. 

The next place that Mary comes prominently before us is at 
Capernaum, probably a year and a half after the wedding at 
Cana. During this time Jesus had attended two feasts of the 
Passover and had twice made a circuit through Galilee, teaching 
the people and performing wonderful works. His fame had 
grown rapidly among the common people, and the crowds pressed 
about him so he did not have time "to eat bread." At this time 
Mary seems to be living with her children, James, Joses, Simon, 
Jude, and their sisters (Matthew 13:55). Thev heard of his 
intense labors, of the toils he was undergoing, and that he was 
not taking the needed time for relaxation. They felt sure that- 
such continued, and, to them, unreasonable labors, would eventu- 
ally kill him. Anxious for his welfare, and believing that he was 
becoming somewhat fanatical, they set off to bring him home 
cither with his own consent or by force. The mother goes with 
them, for she is sure that this son, who has alwavs listened to 
her voice, and who has been so faithful and obedient to her will 
come back to her if she calls him. They find him in the midst 
of a crowd of people, busily engaged in proclaiming to them the 
word of life. Xo work so exhilarating as that in which he is 
now engaged. He is fulfilling the mission for which he came into 
the world ; the blind are learning to see ; the deaf are hearing 
of a better life ; the wicked are becoming dissatisfied with their 
own wickedness, and are seeking a more desirable way. The sat- 
isfactions of the work to which he has committed himself are 
more than meat to him. The crowd is so great they cannot reach 
him A message is sent him, and handed from one to another 
until it finally reaches him, and the one nearest thus addresses 
tam Thy mother and thy brethren stand without desiring to 
speak with thee." This work in which he is now engaged must 
not be interfered with for the gratification of any personal rela- 
tionship. He may possibly have divined their purpose, and duty 
to God may often conflict with and override family relations 
With a heart full of love for the people who are listening to the 
words of life* as they fall from his gentle lips, he spreads his 



27g Women of the Bible 

hands out over these souls who have been mislead by erring 
teachers and exclaims, "Who is my mother and who are my 
brethren ? My mother and my brethren are these that hear the 
word of the Lord and do it; for whoever shall do the will of my 
Father in heaven, the same is my brother, and sister, and mother. 
The blessedness of Mary consisted not so much in having given 
birth to Jesus as in believing in him and accepting the truths which 
he taught. Jesus had now risen to a position with which Ins 
maternal relations had nothing to do. May not this record have 
been placed here as a warning against that worship of his mothe. 
which he no doubt saw was sure to follow? 

To what extent she believed in his divine mission before the 
final end came, we do not positively know It is more than hkely 
from her pondering in her heart the wonderful things said to her 
and from her own desire to understand him and his work, that 
she accepted him as the Messiah. If she did, then her trials would 
be still greater because of the unbelief of her children. They have 
the idea common to the Jewish nation of what the Messiah should 
be He was to come with the pomp of arms, as ^conquering king 
who was to drive out the Roman power, rescue their nation from its 
thralldom, and reign king in Jerusalem. But this visionary brother 
who spent thirty years working at the carpenter's trade with no 
ambition for power or place, who is wandering up and down the 
country teaching these poor people and praying with them may be 
a good home missionary, but evidently is not the Messiah. As a 
fanatical preacher, a misguided enthusiast, they may endure him 
but not as the Jewish Messiah. John tells us (7:2) how at one 
time they contemptuously said to him, when the fast at : *e taber- 
nacles was at hand, "Depart hence, and go into Judea, that thy 
Sles rnav see the works thou doest. If thou do these things, 
tt*3 to the world. For neither did his brethren believe 
in him " They knew that Jerusalem was the ecclesiastical center 
and if fii wanted to be received by the nation at large, he must first 
have the endorsement of those in authority. The disciples he had 
gathered about him were poor people of no political influence, and 
hence could not help him to public recognition. He must be recog- 
nized by the priests and the rulers if he expected to become the 
de iverer of a nation. From their standpoint, then advice was 
g£d but he was not the kind of Messiah for which they had 



Mary — the Mother of Jesus 379 

planned. While some suppose that these brethren were converted 
later to his mission and were among his apostles, others interpret 
the passage as conclusive evidence that James, Simon, and Judas, 
the brethren of the Lord, cannot be the apostles who bore the same 
names. 

At one period in his life, we are not certain of the date, Jesus 
determined to go back to Nazareth to visit his own family and to 
proclaim the new kingdom to his fellow townsmen. It was 
attended with danger, no doubt, but the messengers of the Most 
High must know no fear. The mother was sorely troubled con- 
cerning her son. One writer conceives of the visit as described 
below. His picture is a beautiful one, and yet it is a question 
whether he does not describe feelings which must have come to her 
later in life. 

"Refreshment over and thanks returned with covered head by 
Jesus, we may fancy bow Mary followed him to his own chamber. 
t When at last she thus had him alone, she fell on his neck, but 
instead of kissing him as she had done a thousand times, secretly, 
in spirit, she hid her face on his shoulder and a stream of tears 
fell from her eyes. She wept without speaking, and would not let 
him eo. 






'At last Jesus said, 'Mother, be calm and sit down by me and 
tell me why you weep ?' She did so, and began, her hand in his, 
and his eyes fixed on hers. T rejoice that at last I have you again[ 
and grieve that we shall soon have once more to part' 'Do you 
know this,' asked Jesus, 'how soon or how late I shall leave this 
world? 'Oh, my child,' said Mary, 'does not the deathly white- 
ness of your face tell me that you are wearing yourself out? And 
if you do not wear yourself out, though I am a woman shut in by 
the four corners of my house, how can I help seeing that the hatred 
of your enemies increases daily, and that they have long sworn 
your death ?' 'Granted,' broke in Jesus, 'but have not a great part 
of the people banded around me, and does not this stand the 
way of the plots against me?' 'Indeed,' replied Mary, 'the might 
of your preaching, your independence toward those in power at 
Jerusalem, the novelty of your whole appearance, and above all 
your miracles, have won many to your side ; but the favor of the 
people is like a rain torrent, which swells quickly, only to pass 
away as soon.' 'You are right, oh, blessed among women/ an- 



3go Women of the Bible 

swered Jesus. 'Most of this people seek not salvation from sin, 

but from quite other burdens, and when the decisive moment 

comes they will forsake me faint-heartedly and ungratefully. Your 

look into the future does not deceive me. But even the enmity and 

evil of men serve the councils of God which I came to fulfill. My 

way goes downward to deep darkness from which my sou shrinks, 

but I follow the will of my Father whether the road be up or 

down ' As he spoke, his countenance, which had been clouded for 

a moment, was, as it were, transfigured as the divine in his nature 

shone through the human ; and Mary, drinking in all these lessons, 

thrilled with a more than mortal joy. There was a long pause. 

Alary was silent, but she was, as always, rapt m prayer hair, 

said she, in the thoughts of her soul, 'is the rising sun, fair the 

o T een river, fair the blue sea, but fairer than all else is He. Wnat 

an hour is this ! Mine eyes have beheld the King m his beauty. 

We do not meet Mary again until we see her at the cross. 1 he 
sword which was to pierce through her own heart has done its 
dreadful work. The record tells us, "she stood by the cross. She 
meets the anguish of this hour with the same silent, yet dignified, 
bearin- w ith which she met the first announcement of the angel. 
She was standing there with her sister Mary, and Mary Magda- 
lene and Salome. She was not one of the group of Galilean 
women who habitually followed him, although she is with them at 
this time She had most likely come to Jerusalem to be near him 
but at what time we do not know. John had probably followed 
Jesus to Pilate's palace, and saw him given over to the cross. As 
soon as the result was known, he most likely hastened to tell the 
sad news to those anxious to hear, and to tell her who above all 
was to bear the deepest sorrow. She probably heard of her Son s 
fate from John's lips. When she reached the appointed place, the 
first sight of that Son that comes to her is as he hangs on the cross, 
mocked by passersby, hated by high priests and dignitaries, who 
now are rejoicing that he will soon be where he can no longer 
annoy them. A veil is drawn over her sorrow, but we are sure 
no other heart so entered into his sufferings as did this heart. 
After years of patient waiting, of disappointed hopes, of wonder- 
iul deeds performed for the good of man, she sees her son appar- 
ently forsaken of God and man. But she nobly resolves to stand 







P 

< 

o 



CO 



Mary—the Mother of Jesus 381 

by him to the end, though all others forsake him. So far as is 
known none of his brothers or sisters were present to witness his 
death. He knew how faithful John, the beloved had been. While 
his divine mission was in progress, his family relations must sus- 
tain a subordinate place ; but how the hour has come when such 
relationship may be recognized. He looked upon his mother in 
tears, yet faithful to him in death. He remembered the sorrows 
through which she had passed on his account and was still endur- 
ing. Turning to the faithful mother, with a look of tender 
interest, he says m substance, "Woman, behold in him at thy side 
thou hast thy son given back to thee." Then looking at the faith- 
ful John he added, "To thee I trust my mother; let her be thy 
mother for my sake." When John comes to write the record of 
this wonderful life and death, this scene comes up before him in 
all its pathos, and he tells us, "from that hour that disciple took 
her unto his own home." He took her into his own famny c rcle 
and treated her as his own mother. Her home was likelyTn Jer st 
em after that, as it was in that city that we have our last view of 
her. Eusebms the historian, says she lived fifteen years after the 
crucifixion and then died in the triumphs of faith 

This agony of Mary has been commemorated for over seven 
hundred years m the Stabat-Mater, a hymn which has b a en 
chanted by the Roman Catholic Church, and whose popularity 
increases with the years. Its author was himself a man of many 
sorrows. It has not been introduced into our Protestant hymnals 
because it encourages, in some places, prayers to Mary, but in 

sTal°s: ' ' f " a t0UChing ° UtbUrSt ° f S ° rrOW - We W a few 

"Stood the afflicted mother weeping 

wu 1 " the 7 oss her station keeping 
Whereon hung her Son and Lord- 
inrough whose spirit sympathizing,' 
borrowing and agonizing, 
Also passed the cruel sword. 

"Oh, how mournful and distress'd 
Was that favored and most blessed 

Mother of the only Son • 
Trembling, grieving, bosom heaving, 
While perceiving, scarce believing 
Pains of that illustrious One. 



3g2 Women of the Bible 

"Who the man who, called a brother, 
Would not weep saw he Christ's mother 

In such deep distress and wild? 
Who could not sad tribute render 
Witnessing that mother tender 
Agonizing with her Child? 

•'For his people's sins atoning 
Him she saw in torments groaning, 

Given to the scourger's rod; 
Saw her darling offspring dying, 
Desolate, forsaken, crying, 

Yield his spirit up to God. 

The Scriptures do not state that Christ appeared to Mary 
after the resurrection, but no doubt there were appearances which 
are not recorded. If she at once made her home with John, she 
would, of course, soon learn of these wonderful events. Tradition 
however, has supplied what the sacred writings have not recorded. 
There is a tradition spoken of by St. Ambrose in the fourth cen- 
tury and then generally believed, that Christ after his resurrec- 
tion appeared first to his mother. "The story as given by Mrs. 
Jameson in her 'Legends of the Madonna,' is that Mary, when 
all was finished, returned to her solitude to pray, and to wait for 
the promised resurrection ; and while she prayed, with the open 
volume of the prophecies before her, a company of angels entered, 
waving their palms and singing, and then came Jesus in white 
having in his left hand the standard of the cross, as one just 
returned from Hades, victorious over sin and death, and with him 
came patriarchs and prophets and holy saints of old But the 
mother was not comforted till she heard the voice of her Son. 
Then he raised his hand and blessed her, and said, I salute thee, 
O my mother,' and she fell upon his neck, weeping tears of joy. 
Then he bade her be comforted and weep no more, for the pain 
of death had passed away, and the gates of hell had not prevailed 
against him ; and she thanked him humbly on her knees that he 
had been pleased to bring redemption to man, and make her the 
humble instrument of his mercy. This legend has something in it 
so grateful to human sympathies, that the heart involuntarily be- 
lieves it Though the sacred record is silent, we may believe that 
he who loved his own unto the end, did not forget his mother m 
her hours of deepest anguish." 



Mary— the Mother of Jesus 3g3 

We hear nothing of Mary in connection with the ascension 
\\ e are told in the Acts that "these all continued with one accord 
in prayer and supplication, with the women and Mary the mother 
of Jesus, and with his brethren." If these "brethren" are her own 
children, as we think, they were evidently not of the twelve who 
had already been mentioned. They were not believers durine his 
early ministry, but the crucifixion and subsequent resurrection 
may have been the means of their conversion. This is the last 
view we have of her, and here the Scriptures leave her, engaged 
in prayer. From this time forward we really know nothing about 
her. It ,s more than likely the rest of her life was spent in Jeru- 
salem with John One tradition says the beloved disciple would 
not leave Palestine until she had expired in his arms. Another 
makes her journey with John to Ephesus, and tnere die in extreme 
old age. As soon as we leave the guidance of Scripture, we have 
no very sure knowledge of her. The very darkness in which we 
are leit is instructive. 

"The entire absence of self-seeking and self-assertion is the 
crowning perfection of Mary's character. The steadiness he 

cix:; c h" ce p with , which she i eid herseif to God>s -«> siting 

ca mly on Ins Providence, never by a hasty word or an imprudent 
action, marring the divine order or seeking to place herself in the 
foreground, is an example which we may all take reverently to 
our own bosoms. We long to know more of this hidden life of 
Mary on earth, but it is a comfort to remember that these-splendid 
souls with whom the Bible makes us acquainted, are neither dead 
"or lost. If we hear the word of God and do it,' we may hope 
some day to rise to the world where we shall find them and ask 
of ftem all those untold things which our own hearts yearn to 

Since .the author began the preparation of this chapter the 
woman who penned the above paragraph concerning our Lord's 
mother (Mrs IT B. Stowe), has departed this life, & a„d gone to 
he land of the blessed, where in due time she will be permitted 
to ask hose untold things which our hearts yearn to know " 
and will learn from her own lips the story of that sainted mother 
and of that divine Son. And so shall we all, who are finally 
faithful enter into the companionship of those who have come 



3g4 Women of the Bible 

from all sections, and learn more and more of the transcendent 
beautv of Him who was born in poverty, lived a brief and troubled 
life and was cruelly put to death by his own countrymen that 
he might save many. Not in the mother, but in her San, is our 
hope of everlasting life. 




CHRIST'S FAREWELL TO HIS MOTHER 



8mta===tJ)e Hast $ropi)ete*$ 



"What .qualifications are necessary? Evidently one must be able to see 
and hear, morally and spiritually, and able to report after God, his spoken 
thoughts to his children. Are women endowed with these qualifications? 
Are tiiey the natural teachers? Ask history; ask even the dark ages; ask 
also the poets and the prophets ; then let each questioner look into his own 
home, and into his own heart, and make reply. To ask the question is to 

answer it. . ' 

"If woman is qualified, is she called? How can one know? Again, let 
us take the divine judgment. How can we know God's call, his purpose, 
nis requirement of anv creature? The songbird sings. She cannot help 
it. And the great creatures of the sea must take their place therein. They 
die if out of their own domain, as any soul does if out of God's plan. And 
all God's ministers must chant his love, for they see his presence and feel 
his touch, in places, in persons, and in principles, and they must repeat his 
thoughts ' after him. Are women thus moved? Let ^ even pre-Christian 
history answer. Have women thus moved, thus inspired men and cities 
and nations? Let dying martyrs and transfigured saints give reply. In the 
latest floodtide of the world's philanthropy and Christian work are women 
seen and felt? Let the overwhelming statistics of the last thirty years give 

the answer." . 

— Mrs, Amelia S, Qmnton. 



8nna— uje Hast $ropf)etei*s 



TO dedicate their children to God, and thus give them "a 
portion in Israel," was a duty which no Jewish parent 
much less the parents of Christ, would for a moment dare 
to neglect, ilus great event, the circumcision of the child oc- 
curred on the eighth day after his birth. This could have been 
done m the house where they lodged in Bethlehem, or in the 
ocal synagogue, but it is more than likely they would consider 
the act doubly sacred, if performed within the hallowed courts 
of Mount Zion. His name had been fixed at the time of the an- 
nunciation, but in accordance with Jewish customs, it was form- 
mto ^ 7 c ™ion. This was the formal admission 

mto the congregation of Israel. The child Jesus was now an 

tl nTu rS rad,te - In aCCOrda " Ce Wi * J ewish cust°m* 
mrty-three days more must pass by before the mother could visi 

he temple go outside of her own dwelling, or touch any sacred 
thing. After this period of time had elapsed, she could appear 
in the temple, to thank God for her preservation and to receive 
from the priest "the legal right of purification " 

At the appointed time, Mary, with her child, would be ex- 
pected to present themselves in the court of the women as soon 
as incense had been offered, and the nine blasts of the temnle 
trumpet had given the signal for morning prayer "She would 
Jubtless be early enough on her way to lear the thre r Z t 

tl e cln tfpraTr^ 4116 T*? °' ** * *** ^^ 
vouM hJ °f\ y The earl ' er She came - *e less change there 
would be of her meeting anything on the way that mfeht defile 
her and prevent her entering in the temple. WonTen on here 
rand commonly rode to the temple on oxen that the bodvnf 
huge a beast between them and the ™ u mLhtnr ? 
chance of defilement from passing LfTs^ oT^aT 

gathered, Mary would wait o^Zl^Tif^ 



3gg Women of the Bible 

the Israelites, known as Nicanor, because on it had been hung 
the head of the Syrian general of that name, whom Judas Mac- 
cabeus had slain in battle. When the gate was opened, their offer- 
ings were taken to the Levites into the court of the priests, to be 
burned on the altar. Mary might have had a lamb or a pair of 
young pigeons for her offering, but as Joseph was poor, she may 
have contented herself with the cheaper offering of doves. These 
could have been secured from the temple officers, or may have 
been purchased in the outer court, which was occupied by sellers 
of doves and dealers in oxen, in violation of its intended use. 
While waiting, they would spend the time in giving thanks to 
God for their recovery. Soon a priest came and sprinkled them 
with some of the blood, pronouncing them clean, and the cere- 
mony was over. m tt 

Mary may have had another object in view, namely, the re- 
demption of her firstborn." In patriarchal times, the first- 
born assisted in the priestly services of the household When 
Moses came, the whole tribe of Levi was set apart for this work, 
and the services of the firstborn were no longer required. I he 
firstborn son was however to be presented in the temple and 
consecrated to God's service, a month after birth and be re- 
deemed by the payment of five shekels. What the details of the 
ceremony were at that time, has not been mentioned. If Mary 
were living to-day, the ceremony of "redemption" would be some- 
thing like the following : On the thirty-first day after the child s 
birth the father would invite in ten friends and a rabbi who be- 
longs to the house of Aaron. He presents the rabbi with the child 
and a sum of money, and says, 'This is my firstborn here; take 
unto thee the five shekels due for his redemption. ' At the same 
time the father says, "Blessed art thou, Lord, our God, King of 
the universe, who has sanctified us with thy commandments, and 
commanded us to perform the redemption of a son. Blessed art 
thou O Lord, our God, King of the universe, who hast maintained 
us and preserved us to enjoy this season." The rabbi takes the 
money and after passing the coin around the child's head, as a 
symbol of redemption, lays his other hand on its brow with these 
words "This child is instead of this money, and this money in- 
stead of this child ; may this child be brought to life, to the law, 
to the fear of heaven ; and as he has been brought to be ransomed, 




MATER PURISSIMA 



i 



."::■■■>■ 






Anna — the Last Prophetess 389 

so may he enter into the law and good deeds." He then places 
both hands on the child's head and prays: "God make thee as 
Ephra.m and Manassah. The Lord bless and preserve thee The 
Lord lift up his countenance upon thee and give thee peace 
Length of days, years and peace, be gathered to thee, and God 

theT ended ^ *"* ^ S ° UL " And the ceremo »y ; s 

_ The mother of this remarkable child was to be still more sur- 
prised. It was yet morning and crowds of people are entering 
in or passing out by this gate. The mothers and fathers who had 
firstborn sons to redeem, were still standing there awaiting their 
turn. As they patiently waited, an aged man approaches, who 
probably on account of old age. could not come earlier. His name 
was Simeon and by some he is supposed to have been the father 
of Gamaliel, but of this there is no certainty, as this name was a 
very common one among the Jews. His nation was downtrodden 
by the Romans The bloody Herod, a usurper of an alien rac 
the destroyer of the Asmonean house and kingdom, now ruled 
and he was a fitting type of the men who, unable to properly 
interpret their own scriptures, were looking for a Mess ah who 
should establish an earthly kingdom, as their highest hope n 
spite of the perverted hopes of the nation, in spite of the 
hierarchy which by the very rigidity of its forms' and cere! 
monies was crushing the very heart out of the Jewish faith there 
were here and there in quiet places, unknown to the vast mass 
sincere honest hearts who had a glimpse of the truth of a coming 
Messiah who should be the spiritual redeemer of the people and 
m that faith they were spending their lives. Simeon wasone o 
these men, and while no doubt faithful with others in he observ- 
ance of the ceremonial law, he, at the same time lived la devoted 
hfe, in touch with the divine spirit. He looked, as did othe or 
he coming of the Messiah, but to him that coming meant the 
salvation of his people, not from Roman authority, but from their 

sona, T, S - e meam " 0th ' mS f ° r Wm so ' far ^ his own per 

sonal advancement was concerned, so his heart went out for his 
own people, who had been wrecked by their national wkkednes 
the S„£t * f"S ^ * ^ ^ had a ^monition 1 0U gh 

te s S ^ "had s e°, t> S , \V Va -\ he t°ft " 0t ^ " ntil with his -„ 
eves lie had seen the Messiah. Led by the Spirit, no doubt, he 



390 Women of the Bible 

had come to the temple that morning, as he had come at other 
times, to pay his morning devotions. As he passed by where 
Mary stood with her child, he was attracted toward it, and by 
some impression made upon his almost sightless vision or upon 
his devoted heart, he recognized this child as the Messiah. How 
his heart must have leaped for joy. Bending with old age, he 
totters toward the fond mother, takes her babe in his own arms, 
and gives thanks to God in these most touching words. Lord, 
now lettest thou thy servant depart in peace, according to thy 
word: for mine eyes have seen thy salvation which thou hast 
prepared before the face of all peoples ; a light to lighten the 
Gentiles, and glory of thy people Israel." He thinks of he good 
of his own nation, but from them must go forth this light which 
is to lighten all who come into the world. _ 

This old man turns to the mother, and with a prophetic in- 
sight says to her, "Your child is destined for the fall of many in 
Israel for many will reject him ; but also for the rising again of 
manv'who will believe on him and live. He is sent for a sign 
which shall be spoken against and will meet with reproach and 
contradiction, which will reveal the thoughts of many hearts 
respecting him." Even Mary herself as well as the nation, shal 
know the agony of withered hopes and of bitter disappointment 
for her own soul "would be pierced with a great sorrow. 

The old man had hardly completed his prophetic utterance 
when an aged woman came up, of the tribe of Asher and there- 
fore of Galilee. She is eighty-four years old and bending under 
the infirmities of age, but still able to attend and take part m the 
worship of the sanctuary. The years must have been full of 
strange and sad memories, for she had lived during the period of 
conquest and oppression when men were made to long more and 
more for the coming deliverer. No doubt she had witnessed the 
legions of Pompey when they had encamped around Jerusalem, 
and had seen the city of David go into the hands of ,ts enem.es 
The dreadful story of Herod, with its wars and murders and 
crimes, must have saddened her heart as it had the hearts of her 

Pe °There is little that is known of the tribe of Asher to which she 
belonged. They occupied the plain east of the Mediterranean 
f rom Carmel northward. Some suppose that the whole of the 



Anna — the Last Prophetess 391 

Phoenician territories, including Sidon, were assigned to this 
tribe. During the whole course of the sacred history no prominent 
actions are recorded of them. Asher was one of the sons of Jacob 
by Zilpah, the handmaid -of Leah. He had four sons and one 
daughter, but on quitting Egypt the family or tribe had so in- 
creased that it numbered 41,500 adult males, which made it the 
ninth of the tribes, Ephraim, Benjamin, and Manasseh only being 
below it. Before entering Canaan the tribe had increased to 
53,400, making it the fifth in number. The Canaanites who held 
possession of the territory assigned to Asher were too strong for 
them, and hence they "dwelt among the Canaanites," being inferior 
to them in numbers. It may be they preferred the ease and com- 
fort of their rich plains rather than the labors and toils of war. 
Of this tribe was Phanuel, meaning the same as Penael, the face 
of God, who was the father of Anna. 

She had been married seven years when her husband died, 
leaving her a widow, and as Hebrew girls married at fourteen 
years of age and under, she was probably at the time of her 
bereavement not over twenty-one years of age. It is a little 
singular that, while the father's name is mentioned, there is no 
mention made of the name of her husband. She never married 
again, a fact which Luke seems to mention to her honor, but had 
been "a widow indeed." After the death of her husband, she may 
have concluded to give herself more completely to the services 
of the sanctuary, and so came to Jerusalem in order to be near 
the sacred place. Indeed it is not quite sure that she did not dwell 
in the temple. In Exodus 38 : 8, and in I. Samuel 2 : 22, we find 
indications that women were employed in some cases about the 
temple ; but whether this was of a strictly religious character, or 
consisted in certain subordinate services, such as washing, repaid 
ing of the temple fabrics, and such like, is not known. There were 
chambers connected with the temple for the use of the priests. 
One of these may have been assigned by them to Anna as a special 
mark of honor to a recognized prophetess. If not always in the 
temple she was at least constant in every act of worship, making 
her extreme age no excuse for neglect, but esteeming it a privilege 
that she was able to be present. "It is well known that the temple 
services were not much frequented even by men, and by women 



392 Women of the Bible 

still less or not at all except on the Sabbath days and at great 
solemnities ; and it is this fact which imparts a special emphasis 
to this declaration respecting Anna, the prophetess. 

Anna was recognized by the people as one who spoke with the 
soirit of God. Religious teaching was not confined to the male 
sex in the Old Testament, nor under the New Testament dispensa- 
tion Indeed, we are not sure but that under the new dispensation 
female prophets were to abound. From the general nature of 
woman's occupation and duties, the cases in which she became 
recognized as public teachers of religious truth were rare. The 
erm Wet'' does not necessarily mean the foretelling of 
future events, as we too often are apt to think. With some of the 
p ophets in the earlier times this was the prominent thing. Pro- 
phe? however, were historians, they were poets, they were ex- 
pounders of the law, they were teachers of patriotism, of morals 
and of religion. As we come to New Testament times we find the 
New T tament prophets had to do with the present and not with 
the future. "In the scriptural sense of the term, a Prophet is not 
a foreteller of future events, but a revealer of God s will to man, 
though the latter sense may (and sometimes does) include he 
former So the gift of prophecy was that charism which enabled 
Hossesso to utter with the authority of inspiration divine 
2£ of warning, encouragement, and rebuke, and to teach wih 
a supernatural energy and effect " Or as another says J™^ 
was a spiritual gift which enabled men to understand and o ^ 
the truths of Christianity with authority and effect greater than 
human The prophets of the New Testament were supernatural y 
Munifnated expounders and preachers." The nearest of kin to 
the New Testament prophet to be found in modern times is the 
a y preacher; men upon whose heads no prelaflca hands had 
rested but were unquestionably moved by the Holy Ghost to 
wn sinners to flee from the wrath to come. Joel te Is us that m 
he Christian dispensation this gift shall be more widely diffu ed 
among women. We may safely conclude that Anna was a devoted 
"man of high religions experience, on whom God had bestowed 
gifts that enabled her to speak to any and a J. to edification o 
exhortation and comfort." The faithful followers of Christ in 
thb place ami in this time of spiritual death must have been tew, 



Anna — the Last Prophetess 393 

but whether few or many, such a woman would be well known to 
them. A woman of such power and so great devotion must let 
her light shine. 

She first of all gave thanks, as did Simeon, for this gift of 
the Messiah. During all these years she has been waiting for this 
glad hour. She may have learned from Simeon himself that the 
Lord was to come to his temple before he went hence. She mav 
have witnessed at this very time his exclamations of praise and 
it may have been revealed to her own waiting heart that this was 
the one who was to redeem Israel. Nor was this simply an impul- 
sive outburst of praise, good for the time but short-lived ; but "she 
spake of him, " kept on speaking of him, wherever she could find 
a listener. \\ hen she found one of that little band, who were 
patiently waiting and looking for the fulfillment of divine proph- 
ecy concerning the redemption of Israel, she announced to him 
the glorious news of the Christ who had come. She would meet 
them with happy face as they came in through the temple ^ates 
or if for any reason they could not come, she would pass down 
the narrow streets with faltering step but with bounding heart to 
repeat the glad news. Nor is it certain she confined her state- 
ments to these chosen ones, but as all were looking for a Messiah 
her proclamations of the presence of the Christ in their very midst 
may have been publicly made, and other ears beside the devoted 
ones may have heard the long-looked-for news. Lange tells us • 
I here were there a certain number of pious persons dwelling in 
he capital, who lived in and upon the hope of salvation through 
the Messiah and among whom the report of his birth was soon 
spread. Who knows how soon this report might not have spread 
also throughout the whole country through these means, had not 
the secret departure of the holy family to Egypt and Nazareth 
caused every trace of them to disappear from the eyes of this little 
band at Jerusalem. Perhaps too it was chiefly composed of the 
aged, the poor, and the lowly, whose influence would certainly not 
be very extensive The newborn Savior, now recognized, through 
the testimony of Simeon and Anna, by the nobles in Israel was 
soon to receive the homage of the Gentile world also through the 
arrival of the wise men from the East." 

And so this home missionary has set an example to her sex 
they have not been slow to follow. Anna was among the first to 



394 Women of the Bible 

recognize the presence of Christ in his own temple, and carried the 
news to waiting hearts throughout the city. When he was cruelly 
put to death, women stood about the cross with crushed hearts, 
but powerless to save. When taken from the cross,.they were 
ready with their tokens of affection to pay to his cherished body 
the last tribute of respect. They were present to go forth at his 
command to announce that he had broken the bounds of death and 
was again alive. So from that day to this they have been fore- 
most in carrying the glad news of this living Christ to a world 
lying in darkness. They have organized and managed mission- 
ary societies ; they have given and collected funds with which to 
send missionaries' They have been quick to offer themselves for 
this o-ood work, and in all lands where the standard of the cross 
has been planted, there are they found, teaching, preaching ex- 
horting, toiling, suffering, doing all they cam do to show their 
affection for the risen King. The inspiration of Anna s example 
has stirred thousands of others, some young, some old, who, ike 
her have gone out into the highways and the alleys, and told a lost 
world of Him who was not only to redeem Israel, but was to bring 
salvation to all men. And the great Head of the church has most 
gloriously blessed them in their labors, 



Hero&ias;===tf)e Wcfeeb Jfflotfjer 



"A. thev turned around from the grave the heavens looked very blank 
and the eanh ver V vacant; but a true instinct told them where to go-'they 
went and told Jesus.' Ah, blessed road, whereon thousands upon thou- 
rrds have followed them since ! It is the right road whatever be the 
trouble -but most of all, when the waves and billows of doubt are breaking 
o" Z the minTwhen i looks as if Providence had let go of, the rudder 
anSV«T*f there were no love at the heart of the universe, when the Son 
of God appears To have abandoned his own cause and even to have given 
occSon?o P doubt his very existence, then carry the trouble to no one else 

bU 'li n f slncfha^he made plain the martyrdom of the Baptist, for John 
has a Klished far more P by dying than he could ever have done .by 
nas aLLU " 1 i | 1 . • fl ^rid with an influence ever extending it is 

Iv^he who *k eps Hv thlmemory of Herod Herodias, and Salome, 
T "f.^ered him Whenever truth has to be defended or difficult testi- 
monyTaf to be Srn, there his image sheds a welcome msp>ranon ; and 
i f „ K . i 1e „ ave un his life rather than compromise with sin, theretore n s 
voice crvin|Repe P nt! still echoes in the hearts of men, and his fcw» 
v°sibie acros S s the centuries, outstretched towards 'the Lamb of God, which 
taketh away the sin of the world. _ pr James Sta]ker _ 



getobtaa— tfte Mtcfeeb jWotfjer 



THE family of the Herods comes into view very frequently 
in the early part of the New Testament, because at this 
period the members of it were the civil rulers in Palestine. 
Their record is one of "the bloodiest pictures in the book of 
time," and when one has read of their treachery, their indecency, 
and their murders of the foulest kind, he is almost tempted to 
become ashamed of his race. Some of them were men of keen 
intellectual ability and of great force of will, but utterly unprin- 
cipled and willing to sacrifice everything ordinarily held dear by 
men, for the gratification of their wicked desires. 

Herod the Great, the founder of the famliy, was by birth an 
Idumean, and though an alien by race, was by faith a Jew. His 
all-absorbing aim was to found an independent kingdom, in which 
Judaism should subserve the consolidation of a state. He was 
first appointed governor of Galilee; afterwards made king of 
Judea, and with the help of the Roman power, captured Jeru- 
salem. He was compelled, by public pressure, to remove the 
obscure high priest whom he had appointed, and put in his place 
Anstobulus, the brother of his wife, and a young man of As- 
monean blood. Soon after, the young man was drowned while 
bathing in a tank, as if accidentally by the rough play of his 
comrades, who were instigated to it by Herod. ' Later, by his 
shrewdness and treachery, he became master of a kingdom, which 
included all the land originally divided among the twelve tribes 
together with Idumea. Hyrcanus, the grandfather of his wife' 
was put to death before his visit to Octavius, and Mariamne fell 
a victim to his jealousy after his return. His remorse for the 
deed is well described by Josephus, who savs that Herod com- 
mandedhis attendants always to speak of her as alive. Bvron 
thus writes of Herod's "Lament for Mariamne" : 

" Sh |' s gone, who shared my diadem ; 

Shes sunk, with her my joys entombing: 
swept that flower from Juda's stem, 
Whose leaves for me alone were bloomino- 
And mines the guilt and mine the hell, °* 
Ihis bosoms desolation dooming; 

wJ- 1 ? ave earned these tortures well, 
Which, unconsumed, are still consuming," 



398 Women of the Bible 

Not long after, Alexandria, the mother-in-law, was led to the 
same fate which her daughter had lately suffered His sons, 
Aristobulus and Alexandria, were sent to Rome to he educated, 
and when after three years they were brought back, the people 
hailed them with enthusiasm as the true descendants of the As- 
monean house. That moment, in Herod's mmd, their fate was 
sealed. Convicted under a false charge, they were strangled to 
death. Such a record had this man established for cruelty and 
wickedness, that when the emperor Augustus was importuned to 
grant permission to Herod to take the lives of his chddren, he 
faid "It is better to be Herod's hog, than his son," for his religion 
would not allow him to slaughter the former He was married to 
no less than ten wives, by most of whom he had no children. He 
died in great agony about B.C. 4. His disease was of an excru- 
ciating and loathsome kind. He knew the Jews would not lament 
his death, so he thought of a plan to give them cause for grief 
He sent ordei-s throughout Judea requiring the presence of the 
chief men of the nation at Jericho, and when they arrived he had 
them thrown into prison. Then summoning his sister, Salome, and 
ler h band to lis bedside, he said to them: "My life .s now 
short I know the Jewish people, and nothing will please them 
better than mv death. You have their chief men now in your 
custody As soon as the breath is out of my body and before my 
death can be known, do you let in the soldiers upon them and 
slav them All Judea then and every family will, however tinwill- 
ngly bewail my death." Josephus says that "with tears in his 
eyes he conjured them by their love to him and thai _&***? 
God not to fail in securing this honor to his death." Salome, h 
sister, who already had so much on her conscience, spared hen, f 
this latest guilt, and the Jewish princes were released and partia- 
pated no doubt in this magnificent funeral. He died in the 
seventieth year of his age and in the thirty-seventh of his reign. 

Antipas and Archelaus were both sons of Herod the Great, and 
their mother's name was Malthace. These «»n« were rfu« ted at 
Rome. Antipas was at first named in his will as Herod s sue 
cesser Before he died, kindlier thoughts seemed to have prevailed 
n 1 is mind, and he transferred that dignity to Archelaus, leaving 
to Antipas the government of Galilee and Perea with the title of 
tetrarch. He entered upon his government in the year B.U % 



Herodias — the Wicked Mother 399 

supposed to be about seventeen years of age. He first turned his 
attention to the repairing of his kingdom and the security of his 
throne. lie fortified the town of Sepphoris and made it the capital 
and the ornament of his kingdom. Having secured his northern 
frontier, he turned his attention to Perea, which was exposed to 
the Arabs about half way down the eastern edge of the Dead Sea. 
Amid the precipitous cliffs and peaks of that region he strength- 
ened the fortress of Macherus by high walls and towers, adding 
a residence for himself within its boundaries. It had been badly 
broken down by the Romans in the Asmonean war. He allied 
himself to the x\rab prince Aretas, by marrying his daughter. 

On the banishment of Archelaus, Antipas tried to get from 
Augustus his father's former dominions as a whole. But Judea 
was annexed to Syria. Later on he gained favor with Tiberius, 
Becoming tired of his first capital, he concluded to build a new one 
overlooking the Sea of Galilee, near the hot springs. It was 
planned in Roman style, and in honor of the emperor was called 
Tiberias. It proved to be an unhealthful place, traces of a former 
burial ground were discovered, and the rabbis pronounced it un- 
clean. Antipas paid no attention to these complaints, but filled the 
houses of the new city with every one who would take them. A 
prejudice always remained against the town, but in spite of this, 
Herod transferred his residence here and lavishly decorated his 
palace with heathen ornaments. "The city was adorned besides 
with Grecian colonnades and marble statues, and even at this day 
ruins of fine buildings strew the beach." 

When Pilate was procurator he removed his army from Cses- 
area to Jerusalem, but the Roman standards had images on them 
and the Jewish people rebelled. Pie threatened the opposers with 
death, but this only strengthened their determination to resist. 
Pilate was compelled to yield and the standards were taken back. 
Probably about the year A.D. 26, wishing to see how far he cpuld 
go, he consecrated some gilt shields, inscribed simply with the 
name of the deity and the donor. They were a kind of votive 
tablet, and took their name from having been vowed beforehand, 
in case a divine favor earnestly desired should be granted. On 
these now hung up, Pilate inscribed his own name and that of 
Tiberius, but the Jews denounced them and clamored to have 
them removed. The letter of the law might not be against these 



400 Women of the Bible 

shields, but homage was paid them and they were therefor > an 
abomination. About this time the family of Herod had gathered 
for a family feast in Jerusalem. Pilate referred the matter of 
shields to the emperor, and a deputation was sent to Rome. It so 
happened that Antipas had business at Rome and as he set out 
about the time of the deputation, the people fondly supposed he 
had gone to Rome to aid their cause against Pilate He was at 
this very time planning a violation of the law while apparently 
very zealous to uphold it. 

Herod Philip was the son of Herod the Great and of the 
second Mariamne, a handsome woman of the day, whose father 
an Alexandrian Jew, had been made high priest m honor of 
Herod's marriage to his daughter. This son was excluded from 
all the benefits of his father's will for the supposed treason of the 
mother. He had married Herodias, the granddaughter of his 
father. The uncle had thus married his niece, but such unnatural 
relationships were no uncommon thing in the family of the Herods. 
\t present he was no doubt living an easy, aimless life as a private 
citizen in Jerusalem, which fact did not seem to please his more 
ambitious wife. When Antipas came to Jerusalem to attend the 
family feast, he was entertained by Philip his half brother. The 
latter must have been a man approaching fifty years of age, while 
he wife mav have been thirty-five or older. They had a daughter 
Salome an only child, afterward married to Philip, the tetrarch of 
IturTa who was the brother of Antipas. This handsome, rest ess, 
ambitions Herodias, who no doubt preferred to intrigue with a 
crown prince rather than bear the ills of private life, began to 
p an for the conquest of the new visitor. Cruel, crafty, and [volup- 
tuous like his father, he was most likely an easy victim. Although 
h had long been married to the daughter of Aretas a powerful 
neighbor east of the Dead Sea, he soon found himseh entangled 
in a wicked intrigue with the wife of his gene rous-heart ed bro ther 
The final result was that she promised to leave her husband and 
come to him, as soon as he returned from Rome, provided he 

divorced his first wife. ■ . r 

In due time he is back from Rome. In some manner the wife 
of Antipas learned of his proposed treachery, and deter mmedto 
kave him. She manifested her desire to visit the fortress 
Macherus, which had formerly belonged to the Herods but wluch 



Herodias— the Wicked Mother 401 

at this time her father seems to have controlled. It later came 
back mto the hands of Antipas again. She possibly proposed to 
visit the springs which at that time were quite famous. She had 
previously written to her father, and he had taken steps to carry 
her away She was conducted from one post to another by the 
genera s of Aretas, until she reached the family palace at Petra. 
She told her father all, and he annulled the marriage. Herodias 
in the meantime had left her husband and had come to the royal 
palace at Tiberias. J 

"Everything combined to make this act as detestable as it was 
ungrateful and treacherous. The sole temptation on his side was 
an impotent sensuality, on hers an extravagant ambition. From 
this m ,„„te began for Herod Antipas a series, of annoyances and 
misfortunes which only culminated in his death, afterwards in dis- 
crowned royalty and unpitied exile. Herodias became from the 
first the evil genius of his house. The people were scandalized 
ana outraged. Family dissensions were embittered." The curse 
of childlessness denounced by the law on such a crime was ful- 
filling itself. Tfie father of his repudiated wife threatened war 
because of the insult to his daughter. After long and fierce 
wrangling it finally broke into an open hostility, and Antipas was 
so badly beaten and his army so dreadfully shattered that he 
appealed to the emperor and was kept on the throne by his sup- 
port. The Jews thought the destruction of his army was a punish- 
ment sent from God upon him because of his wickedness 

. For a time Antipas and his adulterous wife seemed 'to have 
things their own way; but while within the walls of their eilded 
palace they may live their sensual lives without fear of the indig- 
nation of their own subjects, there is a voice they cannot thrust 
out—the voice of a guilty conscience. In the case of Antipas his 
conscience had lately troubled him more tkan ever He hears of 

LarW^ T I 01 "! UP 3nd d ° Wn the J ° rdan ' With a « ^tic 
bearing, clothed in hn i desert raiment, the hairy cloth and leathern 

g.rdle, a second Elijah in power, who was calling upon the people 
to repent and turn away from their sins, for the kingdom of God 
is at hand. Crowds of men from all parts of the land, represent- 
ing all classes from the highest to the lowest, gather to hear this 
man who speaks the simple truth to all and who fears the face of 
none. He claims simply to be a "voice" in the wilderness. Anti- 



402 Women of the Bible 

pas will of course hear of this wonderful man, but where and how 
he first met him we do not know. Josephus says that this man 
was arrested and imprisoned because Antipas feared that the 
crowds which had been attracted by his preaching, might be used 
for revolutionary purposes. While this may have been the pretext, 
the probability is that the Gospels give us the true reason The 
preacher may have first sought the abode of the king, and Herod, 
having a curiosity to hear such a man, may have invited him to 
come and visit and talk before him. As the guilt of this man had 
been known and freely talked among his subjects, John of course 
is familiar with the history of the great crime which they had both 
committed. Arrayed in his prophet's garb, coming from the 
desert in the earnestness and sincerity of a man who is called oi 
God to a great work, he must have presented a wonderful contrast 
to the licentious, indolent, pleasure-loving people who were accus- 
tomed to tread these marble floors. Antipas may have hoped to 
obtain John's sanction, or at least his acquiescence in what he had 
done- and if so, he would fare better with the people, for they 
held the prophet in the greatest esteem. But he mistook his man. 
He had been predestined to preach the truth clearly plainly, 
forcibly, and the truth must be preached without regard to the 
social standing of the hearers. He was not his own but Gods 
prophet, and therefore he could not cringe the knee to those in 
royal position or say honeyed words to soothe men s evil con- 
sciences. "For John had said unto Herod, It is not lawful for thee 
to have thy brother's wife." 

Herod himself might have passed over a statement like that, 

severe as it was, with the hope that on further acquaintance he 

might conciliate John; but the blood of the ambitious Herodias 

must have boiled at such a plain, bold, courageous statement of her 

wickedness. As long as this man lives he will keep before her the 

memory of her wicked deed, and she must do her best to silence 

such a plain-spoken tongue as that, even if he must surrender his 

life With the influence which she had over Antipas, she may have 

prevailed on him, even against his own wishes, to have put him to 

death but he had a well-founded fear that the effects of so 

atrocious a deed on such a man might have a disastrous result on 

a people alreadv indignant at such wickedness. He thrust him 

into prison, in part probably to protect him from the evil designs 




xn 



w 

O 



o 






Herodias — the Wicked Mother 403 

of his own wife, but made his imprisonment as bearable as pos- 
sible. "For Herod feared John, knowing that he was a just man 
and holy, and he kept him safe, and when he heard him he did 
many things and heard him gladly." 

For a time Antipas stood between his prisoner and the Jezebel 
who thirsted for his death, and protected him. The Baptist had 
no reason to apprehend any immediate danger from Herod. There 
might be some hope even that by intercourse with John, hearing 
and conversing with him, he might possibly be aroused to his 
condition and be led to do better. But Herodias hated him as she 
had reason to do. She was even worse than Jezebel of old, tor 
Elijah escaped her vengeance, but John did not escape his enemy 
Suppose Herod should put her away as John advised, where was 
she to go ? She could not return to her former husband, and she 
must therefore be an outcast. There will be nothing left for her 
but shame and disgrace. She could not run any such risk. Herod 
had respect for John and reverence, possibly mingled with fear. 
"Though in his palace, surrounded with his royal guards, Herod 
feared him. He knew the Baptist was stronger than he, for truth 
is mighty and mightily prevailed. He feared this righteous man 
whose words gave such edge to his self accusations, such point to 
his remorse. Unarmed, the Baptist daunted him more than an 
army of men, an embattled city, or a fenced tower, or any other 
source of physical and outward force." Herodias found nothing 
attractive in him. If he succeeds in his purpose, she will be 
banished irom the royal palace, a disgraced and ruined woman 
Her hatred goes straight to the mark, and nothing is allowed to 
stand in its way. The only safe thing for her to do is to secure 
his death ; for, while he lives, her peace and comfort will be con- 
stantly threatened. How to reach this result is no doubt the upper- 
most thought for months in this woman's mind. 

After patiently nursing her wrath for some time, at last her 
opportunity comes. Antipas had the good fortune to keep his 
throne over thirty years, and had been accustomed to celebrate 
the anniversary of his accession to the throne each season by a 
splendid banquet. The time had again come for such an anni- 
versary,, and he arranges to serve at Macherus a banquet for his 
courtiers and generals and Galilean nobles. His wife will see to 
it that this is the grandest event of his reign. The windows would 



404 Women of the Bible 

be illuminated and hung with flowers. The tables would be spread 
with every luxury, and wine will flow freely. With the fondness 
of these kings for display, there would be nothing wanting to 
such a banquet, which wealth or royalty could possibly procure. 
His wife, ostensibly to honor her lord, but in reality to accomplish 
her own wicked purpose, will do what she can to make it a magnifi- 
cent success. , 
"Herodias had craftily provided the king with an unexpected 
and exciting pleasure, the spectacle of which will be sure to 
enrapture such guests as his. Dances and dancing women were at 
that time in great regard. A luxurious feast of the period was not 
regarded as complete unless it closed with some gross, pantomimic 
representation, and doubtless Herod had adopted the evil fashion 
of his day. . . . The dancing then in vogue, both in Rome 
and the provinces, was very like that of our modern ballet. The 
dancer did not speak, but acted some story by gestures, movements, 
and attitudes to the sound of music. Masks were used m all cases 
to conceal the features, but all other parts of the body, especially 
the hands and arms, were called into action. The dress of the 
performer like that of the dancers in our own ballet, was planned 
to show the beauty of the figure to the greatest advantage. . . . 
Herod had not anticipated for his guests the rare luxury .of seeing 
a princess, his own niece, a granddaughter of Herod the Great and 
of Mariamne, a descendant therefore of S.mon the high pr est 
and the great line of Maccabean princes-a princess who after- 
wards became the wife of a tetrarch and the mother of a king- 
honoring them by degrading herself into a scenic dancer. 

"No doubt the favorable moment was watched by Herodias, 
when the tetrarch and his boon companions had reached the stage 
at which evil passions can be most easily blown into flame then 
the girl is introduced, in her youth and beauty, and executed with 
bewitching grace the part for which she had been trained. The 
sigk of one so nearly related to himself appearing in the position 
of a dancing girl or play actress ought to have filled Herod with 
Ime and^indignation; but the dare-devil _ saucmess and the 
abandonment of a princess completely carried away the half - 
intoxicated men, who looked on spellbound and broke out nto 
wild applause; and the tetrarch, ent.rely losing control of himseli 
roared out a promise to give her any present she might ask, even 



Herodias—thc Wicked Mother 405 

to the half of his kingdom." And yet, poor fool that he was he 
could not give away the humblest village without the permission 
of fiberius the emperor. 

tni^r^ 'f 5 " S that , the m ° ther had ex P ected something of 
this kind and had instructed the daughter beforehand what to do 

mother S n /'? ne the ^ 0DCe m ° re 2° es to c °»-'t her' 
mother, to learn if she were stdl of the same mind. Half a king- 
dom had been promised her. What could she not have had wifh 
such wealth-palaces, jewelry, apparel, everything a girl could 

Z to 1 f I m T\ had , ° ther th ° U ^ htS > a " d had trained e 
girl o hate when she hated. The mother now has a chance to 

wreak vengeance on the faithful "voice" which had proclaimed her 

sin, had annoyed her day by day and in her dreaJby niglt and 

who had sought to take her husband away from her. What an apt 

pupil the daughter had been ! "And she came in straightway J h 

haste [what a revelation is that!] to the king and said, Give me 

p'etTtio'n'fo T Se V t 'I' ° f JOh " the Baptl ' St " What a dread™,! 
petition for a girl to make or a mother to allow ! John is not only 

to lose his head, but the bleeding trophy is to be brought to her I 

must be brought there where she now is, that not only she but the 

lords who were present might know that the vow which they had 

heard the king make, they now see kept. It must not be brought 

in any careless way, not held by the hair, not in a napkin bu on 

achsh, so that she may have it herself, in her own hands, without 

"erle'plet^ 041168 ' "* *" *? * * te * » ^r- 

Herod saw as soon as the words had been uttered that he had 

been entrapped by the wicked woman who was dragging him down 

esTas tS Fo" l6SS ^flt ^ '*>"«* " s » ch ^T 
r.ess as this For a moment the life of the Baptist lianas in a 

"waT^rrv^r^V T^ ™« «** *° « ^ h 
was sorry. This has sobered him in part ; and as his conscience 

begins to work, will he let his manhood prevail ? Had he pos- 
sessed the courage of his prisoner he would have done the Z t 
thing would have broken his rash promise and saved the life of 
a righteous man. "If a single touch of manliness had been left in 
him he would have repudiated the request as one which did not 
fall either under the letter or spirit of his oath, since the life of 
one cannot be made the gift to another; or he would have boldly 



405 Women of the Bible 

declared at once that if such were her choice, his oath was more 
honored by being broken than by being kept. But a despicable 
pnde and fear ol man prevailed oyer his better impulses. More 
£a the criticisms of his guests than of the future torment 
of such conscience as was left him, he immediately sent an execu- 
tioner to the prison, which in all probability was not far from, the 
banqueting hall ; and so at the bidding of a dissolute coward and 
to please the loathly fancies of a shameless girl, the ax fell and 
the head of the noblest of the prophets was shorn away. 

We know nothing of the tragedy inside the prison. While the 
dreadful revelling is going on in the chambers above and a human 
life is being bartered away to gratify the revenge of a wicked 
woman, John is resting quietly below, at peace w ith Go d and 
unconscious of the fate that is awaiting him. During all these 
"onths he has been kept within prison walls because ^ - » 1 oya 
to the truth. He was still young, not much more thai .thirty - yea« 
of age "The pulses of life were strong in him. He had been 
arrested in the midst of a great work, and much he must have felt, 
a very true worker for God and man feels, was yet to be don* 
Had hi still a great doubt which he was yearning to have solved 
before leaving me world?" If any one was present to witness the 
qu ck work of the executioner, his lips were sealed, for no report 
ha come to us. It was nothing to the executioner who was simply 
u mfing the order of his king. He emerges from the prison 
eel carrying by the hair the head of a noble man and places it on 
a di h There is a story that when Herodias saw it, she drew 
forth the still warm tongue that had rebuked her crimes and 
evengefull, transfixed it with her bodkin. Tradition says that, 
Sd that she had at last been avenged, Herodias ordered the 
Eless body to be flung out over -the battlements r the dogs to 
•devour His own disciples, who had been hoping for his release 
und his mutilated body and buried it in the sands o the ese rt 
a fit resting place for the man whom the world had treated so 
unkindly as it always treats its prophets. Into that onely grave 
went t ars of affection, and with that body they buried many of 
the r hopes Did they ask themselves the question, Might no the 
Messiah" 1 ad he beenso disposed, have saved tireir master's life? 
Were they able to solve the problem why so good and so 
geous a man should be so quickly cut off when in the midst of a 



Herodias—the Wicked Mother AQ7 

* 

glorious work, by a king so wicked as Antipas, aided by a woman 
so devilish is Herodias? As they turned away from the grave no 
doubt the earth seemed vacant and the very sky above as brass, 
but they did as thousands of troubled hearts who have been in 
similar grief have done since, "they went and told Jesus " 
_ But the end was not yet. So great a crime shall not go unpun- 
ished. Often in this life and certainly in the other the penaltv 
comes.. From that day forward until his dying hour that dis- 
severed head was not absent from Herod's imagination. Not lone 
after this, when he hears of another prophet who is doing greater 
work than John did, his conscience is filled with superstitious dread 
and he says to those near him, "This is John the Baptist whom I 
beheaded ; he is risen from the dead, and therefore these mighty 
works are wrought by him." "Had John sprung to life a^ain 
thus suddenly to inflict a signal vengeance? Would he come to 
the strong towers of Macherus at the head of a multitude in wild 
revolt? Would he glide through the gilded balls of Julias or 
1 iberias, terrible at midnight with ghastly tread ?" 

The mad ambition of Herodias finally led to the ruin of her 
husband When Caligula began to heap favors on Herod 
Agnppa I., she urged her husband to sail for Rome to secure some 
Ol the favors which were going to her brother. She was anxious 
he should secure the title of king i n place of that of tetrarch He 
saw danger m such a request, but she insisted and, against his 
better judgment, he y.elded. Agrippa not only discouraged his 
scheme but sent a freed man to Rome to accuse Antipas of treas- 
onable design/ He failed to clear himself of the charge, and in 
-\.U. 33 he was banished to Lugdunum not far from the Spanish 
frontier. Herodias, from choice or necessity, or maybe in despair 
accompanied him m his exile, and here they both died in obscurity 
and dishonor. -\ 

From this sad history we may pause long enough to draw two 
important lessons. The first is that our modern fashionable dance 
is exceedingly dangerous and should be avoided "I et it be ob 
served that the social dancing of modern Europe which has been 
transferred to America is neither Jewish/religious, nor simply 
cahsthenic as to its origin, but is a daughter of the Roman dance 
which was ever associated with licentiousness. The Greeks had 
cultivated the art of dancing with an extravagant passion, and 



AQg Women of the Bibk 

were the first to introduce higher dances into the theater; the 
Romans fol ow d their example and thus fixed a s tl gma on what 

Domiti.n passed deer... »«»«> *™. « » »« - 

look at it. 1 am too we 1 wa tching for twenty-five years 

history to countenance . and 1 after ^watc g ^^ ain$t 

its effect upon modern society, -have set y ^ ^ fa 

it as an /Y^ 'hut it dM have i origin in a worse than pagan 
f aga n of mo^;is and he fact that pure-minded persons may 
" -hlv enCe in "with entire innocence of wrong feeling or 
possibly enga e in i influence to society in general. 

inte "xi Pr 7et mfask you i you had a family of children, how 
, fH lu tolerate in your house a man, who, perhaps im- 

long would you toieraie in v r i 011C rhter should lav hands 

nl ed g iately upon introducUor ito your daughte^ou ^ 

U T ^iKSS^SSihere can be any doubt upon 
waltz? 1 am simpiy asu. „ - h]e reflecting persons. The 

this point with sound-minded, sensible reflect p ^ 

mod ern ^/gft^ZS^^, immoral, insult- 
the customs of the dance is regar p y therings f 

tag. Society wisely jegulates the ord ^ & ed> 

men and women m the parlor, even wmen y 

by certain wholesome barriers of estrain A - ^ 

cLlly at first -reS^SSri^^ kicked ° Ut ° f 
S e oorras d a ^1^ thXil nas invented in the round 



Herodias—the Wicked Mother 409 

dances, a polite and popular method of making such gross famil- 
iarities allowable under the sanctions of fashionable custom 
Hence their attraction to the people of the world ; hence their 
•ensnaring influence to the disciple; and the better the class of 
men and women that countenance the devil's -dance, the more con- 
spicuous his triumph.*' 

The other lesson is the wrongfulness of solemnly swearing- 
to keep or to do that of which at the time we can have no pos- 
sible knowledge. This king, inflamed by wine, solemnlv swore 
that whatever the lewd girl asked should be given her, if it took 
half his kingdom. Of course, he had no idea that such a request 
would be made, but before he took the oath, he should have con- 
sidered all the possibilities of the case. Such an oath should not 
have been made. The keeping of it required murder. When he 
saw this, he should have refused to comply, and should have 
repudiated an oath which, in his purpose, did not include anv 
such thing. A thoughtful man who wants to do what is right 
will ake no oath which obligates him to do or to keep something 
which has not been revealed to him. For when it is revealed he 
may find that the keeping of it will lead him, as it did Herod 
Antipas, to wrongdoing. In short, the fewer oaths men take 
except such as are provided for by civil law, which simply obli- 
gates men to tell the truth and are not of the blind kind to which 
reference has been made, the better for them and for society at 



tEfje Woman of g>amarta= 
an €arlj> Jttts&tonarp 



"Oh, dwarfed and wronged and stained with ill, 

Behold! Thou art a woman still ! 

And, bv that sacred name and dear, 

I bid thy better self appear. 

Still, through thy foul disguise, I see 

The rudimental purity, 

That spite of change and loss, makes good 

Thy birthright-claim of womanhood ; 

And inward loathing, deep, intense, 

A shame that is half innocence. 

Cast off the grave-clothes of thy sin, 

Rise from the dust thou best m, 

As Mary rose at Jesus' word, 

Redeemed and white before the Lord ! 

Reclaim thy lost soul ! In his name 

Rise up, and break thy bonds of shame 

Art weak? He's strong. Art fearful? Hear 

The world's O'ercomer ; be of cheer. 

What lip shall judge when he approves? 

Who dare to scorn the child te toves^ ^.^ 



Efje Woman of Samaria— an Carl? jWfejtonarp 



T Te\l t 7 v S ° me r m " e m °" ths in J udea > and ^w that 

J the bigoted, rehgious Jews about Jerusalem were watching 

him with an unfriendly eye. He may have seemed to them a 

nva even more dangerous than John the Baptist, for his cleansing 

peonie " Th ° ther miraC ' eS ^ givC " Y™ ™ re P°"« ^ 

posed to nrJ n r W3S r 3S f m ' "° ° Pen h ° StiIit ^ nor was ^ dis- 
posed to provoke any, for Ins work was not yet done His own 

%?tz:nt arouse the , envy ° f the b ^ SwS aL n 

ins disregard of ceremonial customs might awaken their sus 

C™whl I"" PhariS r eS W ° Uld be q " ick to ^«late both. So" 
Christ L withdrew in order to forestall any danger of rupture or 
conflict, showing an example for all Christian worke s to foflow 

soW a bv he t r med t0 - WmSeIf t0 ^ ^ *** "".e more ha n 

ho s g A oc H ayS 'l l °, - St ° ny P ' aCeS ' ° r am ° n ^ thist, « a " d 
morns. A locality had claims on him, not on account of the 

wTrl LZ to (Efft "V? ^^ but * the "-blrf who 
were won to God through his teaching 

He will go into Galilee where he will find the people not so 
bound by ntual and form as in Judea, and therefore more dis 
posed to hear the simple truth. His own people usua , v preferr d 
he circuitous route by way of Perea, east of the Jordan a her 
than through Samaria settled by a people whom they hated 
There, was m part, a justifiable reason for the odium which at 
tached to the term "Samaritan" in the mind of punc fliou Tew " 

beenTSsld f " *" baCk "^ y6arS ' but ** bitter SS J had 
been nursed from one generation to another. When the ten 

tnbes had been captured and most of them carried off bvShal 

maneser a heathen colony had been sent in to take Ae place of 

these ex, ed Israelites. These colonists suffered from the devas- 

£**' ^ aCti " g °" the COmm °" "» iot of 
that time that their own gods were not competent to take care of 

hem in a strange land, sent for and received pries s of Israe 

to teach them the manner of the God of Palestine' The result was 



a 14 Women of the Bible 

a mixed religion, partly Jewish, partly heathen. The conduct of 
these Samaritans increased the antagonism between them and We 
Tews They became open opponents of the rebuilding of the 
Jemnie after the captivity. Finally they secnred permission to 
3d a r iva temple* Gerizim, and Samaria became the rival of 
Tenisalem and the rallying point of its foes and outlaws To a 
J Imnle and religion they added a Samaritan pentateuch, 
whi h Ts now generally conceded, has an antiquity greater 
tan any other in existence. Of these people, about one hundred 
and f fifty stfil worship in a little synagogue in the town . ot 
Nablus at the foot of Gerizim, the oldest and smallest sect m the 
w orlu In 1881, the writer had the privilege of looking into h s 
remple, examining this ancient manuscript, and spending a little 
time in conversation with the rabbi. c, rl ,w 

Christ must have started in the early morning to reach Sychar 
at noon and so it must have been located near the boundary line. 
UsuaUv the road was not a safe one, for along this border line 
rt f ids of the two peoples would rage more fiercely. Josephus 
tells us that pilgrims from Galilee were often moles ted and some- 
times attacked and scattered with more or less slaughter. 1 he 
ar g e plS which he traversed coming from the south, must in 
hat day have been very fertile. We saw «™*"*J*fi£ 
ing with their oxen, and there was no reason except ^imperfect 
cultivation why they should not have a good crop In that day 
•"h level' stretches of black soil, overflowed in the wet season, 
form pkndid pastures, which alternate in the valleys with fer- 
fl tracts of corn land, gardens, and orchards Grape vines aiid 
many kinds of fruit trees cover the warm slopes of the lime 
stone hills and groves of olives and walnuts crown heir rounded 
ops Th meadows of Samaria have always been famous. The 
prophets already speak of the pastures on its downs and of the 
Set of its still forests. As Josephus tells us, the supply of 
ran was abundant on the hills and made them richly wooded. 
Tne climate was so good and healthy that the Romans greatly- 
preferred the military stations in Samaria to those in Judea. 

Tesus was on the way to Shechem, the ancient name for that 
which is known as Nablus to-day. It is at present a town of sev- 
eral thousand people, and a dirty, filthy place. It was .handsomeK 
oc ted° and the Ma ter would not be blind to the beauties of the 



The Woman of Samaria— an Early Missionary 415 

landscape around him. About him he would see groves of walnut 
almond, and pomegranate, while olive, pear, and plum trees' 
adorned the outskirts of the town. The weather was bright and 
warm, and the woods would be filled with the songs of the birds 
1 he brooks of fresh, clear water, then as now, would play and 
splash and murmur as they went by. Thousands of flowers 
adorned the grass on the slopes. This was his Father's world 
his own world, and the beauty and loveliness of the landscape 
about him were in striking contrast to the spiritual death which 
everywhere prevailed. 

Tired with his long walk, as it was midday, and oppressed 
probaby by the heat of the Syrian sun, which is warm even in 
December, Jesus turns aside from the beaten path and sat himself 
down to rest by what was then and is still called, Jacob's well. 
W hether Jacob dug the well or not, or whether his name was 
subsequently given to it by tradition, i s not known. The pur- 
chase of the ground by him is described in the thirty-third chapter 
ot Genesis. It is not even known why it should have been dug 
at all. There is an abundance of fountains in that region and 
the most probable reason for it would be to take awav every occa- 
sion for dispute, between Jacob and his descendants and the peo- 
ple around him. It ,s at present some seventy-five feet deep but 
must have been much deeper, as it is the custom of travelers' and 
others who visit it to cast in a stone to determine if there am 
water, and to form some idea of its depth. To have digged it 
ongmally was no easy task, for it is about seven and onf-ha 

itomv d Tt e o; r ' t and " Hned thr ° Ugh0l,t With ^ong r S 
masonry. Atone time in our era, a church stood over it and not 
many years since there was still to be seen the remaL of an 
alcove bunt to gave a seat and shelter to the tired trave er The 
assoaatmns of tins place were many and sacred. In this region 
the Lord first appeared to Abraham : Jacob built here his firs 
ahar; here Joseph sought his brother in vain; Joshua rehearsed 

i^SSsts^is Joseph was buried in the ,and 

a iffc s £ht"t1 th6re t0 reSt ' WS disdp ' eS went to Sydtar. 

„,.",f f. s, -? ht ' ° P roc " r e some provisions. The funds sun- 
Phed by friends who desired to minister to him, furnished the 



416 Women of the Bible 

necessary means. While resting there, a woman from this same 
Sychar approached, with a water jar on her head as is the custom 
and a long cord in her hand, with which to let the jar down mto 
the wen The evening was the usual time for drawing water 
and hence when she came at noon, she and Jesus were alone at the 
Si To ask for a drink of water in that warm climate is no un- 
gual thing and ordinarily no one would think of refusing. To 
any other'the woman no doubt would have granted i wijout a 
moment's hesitation, but the dress and language of this man 
showed that he was a Jew, and she remembered hat the tv,o 
nations had no dealings with each other Jesus had asked a 
favor of her, thus placing himself under obligations It was a 
urprise to her, and she hesitated. Finally she says to him, How 
it Aat thou being a Jew, askest drink of me, whic m» ^; 
man of Samaria? for the Jews have no dealings with the Samar 
W Ttett was a fair question, for the Jews had been very 
arbi rary in their treatment of this people. According to then 
traditions "no Israelite could lawfully eat even a mouthful of 
food h" ' had been touched by a Samaritan ; no Samaritan was 
noted to become a proselyte, nor could he have any -gt in te 
resurrection of the dead. The testimony of a Samaritan could 
not be taken in a Jewish court, and to receive one into one s house 
would bring down the enrse of God. It had even become a sub- 
ject of "arm controversy how far a Jew might use food or fruit 

o-rown on Samaritan soil." . 

Testis meets her frankness with as frank a statement on his 
par He wishes to lift her thoughts beyond the mere wants of 
th body • he wants to provoke her to make further inquiry of 
ht By 'a natural transition he tells her of living water, the gift 
of God and which he has to give. It is so precious tha if she 
knew what it was, and who it was that offered, she would have 
asked to be permitted to drink. He meant, of course, the d.vine 
grace and truth which will satisfy every unking soul. This was 
intended to arrest her attention, and so it did. She at first does 
not get beyond the mere literal sense, for she replies, You can 
not mean the water in the well here ; you cannot give me that 
for you have nothing to draw with ; whence then can you get 
tWs ivL water of which you speak? Are you greater than our 
father, jLb, who gave us the well? It was good enough for 




'< 



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t— I 
K 



to 



P- 
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c/i 

I— I 

O 



The Woman of Samaria— an Early Missionary 417 

him and his to drink from, and you speak as if you had other and 
better water." The curiosity of the woman is now thoroughly 
aroused. Jesus replies, "This water in this well is no doubt good, 
as you say, but every one who drinks it thirsts again ; whereas he 
who drinks the water that I will give, will never thirst, but will 
find it like a well of water in his soul, springing up into ever- 
lasting life." 

% "As the body thirsts and is contented with water, so there 
is for all unanswered yearnings, for unsatisfied desires, for all 
that restlessness and craving of feeling, for the thirst of the soul 
a living water which shall quiet them ; not as water quiets the 
body that thirsts again in an hour, but with an abiding and eternal 
satisfaction. That is indeed that 'gift of God' which, had she 
known, would have made her suppliant to him. Even vet how 
few know it. How few among Christian believers have entered 
into that rest of soul, that trust and love which comes from the 
divine spirit, and which, when once the Holv Spirit has fully 
shined upon and brought sunrise to the soul/ will never depart 
from it, but will be an eternal joy. None of this, however did 
she understand. Perhaps while Christ was speaking, she revolved 
m her mind the convenience of the new sort of water which this 
man spoke of, and what a treasure it would be, if, when the sum- 
mer came on, she need not trudge wearily to this well. At an V 
rate she seems to have replied in a business-like spirit 'Sir give 
me this water that I thirst not, neither come hither' to draw ' 
there are many like her who would be glad of such a divine -ift 
of religion, as should take away all the labor and trouble of a 
Christian lite That I come not hither to draw' is the desire of 
thousands who want the results of right living without the 
trouble of living right. 

Haying this woman's attention, it is now time to bring home 
the truth more pointedly to her conscience. As the first sten to- 
wards granting her request, Jesus says to her directly, "Go call 
thy husband." There must have been something either in the 
tone or the manner that startled her. for she seems for the mo- 
ment to be thrown off her guard. This looks like a break in the 
conversation but it is really the first step in granting the woman's 
request. Before she can have this water of life, there must be 
conviction of sin. Instead of evading this question, as would 



418 Women of the Bible 

have been perfectly natural, she hastily replies, as if with some 
sense of shame, "I have no husband." Then came, like a well- 
aimed arrow, the words of Christ, "Thou hast well said, I have 
no husband : for thou hast had five husbands ; and he whom thou 
now hast is not thy husband: in that saidst thou truly." She 
had, no doubt, lived with the five, and been separated from them, 
some by death and others by divorce. Her present relations were 
evidently illegal. Christ's rebuke was severe in fact, but gentle 
in form. He shows a full knowledge of her sin, but commends ; 
her for her truth-telling disposition. 

The woman is confused for a moment. She expected no such 
revelation of her past life. It is only for a moment, for such as 
she must be nimble in thought and not be caught asleep. "Sir, I 
perceive that thou art a prophet." This. was a hasty conclusion, 
but it turned the former statement into a compliment to himself 
rather than a reminder of shame to her. And now, like all sinners 
when hard-pressed along the line of personal duty, she is quick to 
bring up the old relations of Jews and Samaritans. She is not die 
firsAvho has been more concerned with* questions of theoretical 
theology than with those of practical duty. "Our fathers worshiped 
in this mountain." Right before them on Mt. Gerizim the temple 
was seen blazing in the midday sun. Jesus permits her for a 
moment to change the subject. He has awakened her by the truth 
to a sense of sin, and her own conscience will press its claims. No 
matter when or where or how the soul seeks God, if it only seeks 
him in spirit and in truth. 

It is possible that this woman really did desire from this man 
his opinion on the momentous question of where to worship. This 
was in some sense a very important matter to her. Her worship 
had ceased to be the offering of the heart, and had become a super- 
stition of place and methods. This was in good part true of the 
Jews also. It would be a matter of no little value in their relation 
to the Jews to have the opinion of a man so well informed as this 
one and who did not seem to be prejudiced towards her nation as 
were most of the Jews. "Gerizim was their sacred mountain and 
had been, as they believed, the seat of Paradise, while all the 
streams that water the earth were supposed to flow from it. Adam 
had been formed of its dust and had lived upon it. Every Samar- 
itan child of the neighborhood could point out the places on it 



The Woman of Samaria— an Early Missionary 419 

where Noah came out from the ark and where he built his altar, 

and could show the seven altar steps on each of which Noah offered 

a sacrifice, The altar on which Abraham bound Isaac, and the 

spot where the ram was caught in the thicket, were among its 

wonders. In the center of the summit was the broad stone on 

which Jacob rested his head when he saw the mystical ladder, and 

near it the spot where Joshua built the first altar in the land after 

its conquest, and the twelve stones he set up, on the under side 

of which they believed the law of Moses had been written. On this 

sacred ground their temple had stood for two hundred years, till 

destroyed by the Jews a hundred and twenty-nine years before 

Christ." This simple Samaritan woman with whom Jesus was 

now talking had been trained to believe all these legends, and her 

mention of Jerusalem as a possible place of worship shows that 

she was willing to be taught. 

There was no narrow intolerance in the heart of Christ, and 
although of Jewish nationality, he had a kindly feeling for the 
Samaritans, maybe in part because they seemed to be an outcast 
race. He chose a Samaritan to illustrate the law of love to one's 
neighbor. It was a Samaritan alone of the ten lepers who were 
healed that returned to give thanks ; and now it is a Samaritan 
woman who seems to be opening her heart to his words, after he 
experienced the cold unbelief of Judea. The plain all about him 
is filled with precious memories of his ancestors. A divine enthu- 
siasm seems to have filled his soul as he sees in vision the time 
when the local, the national, the transitory in religion will have 
passed away before the universal, the spiritual, the eternal. "Be- 
lieve me," said he, "an hour comes when ye shall neither in this 
mountain, nor in Jerusalem, worship the Father. Ye worship 
ye know not what ; we know what we worship : for salvation is of 
the Jews. But the hour cometh, and now is, when the true wor- 
shippers shall worship the Father in spirit and in truth : for the 
Father seeketh such to worship him." 

'Words like these marked an epoch in the spiritual history of 
the world, a revolution in all previous ideas of the relation of man 
to his maker. The worth of man's homage to God does not depend 
on the place where it is paid. The true worship has its temple in 
the inmost soul, in the spirit and heart. It is the life of the soul ; 
it is communion with God. Religion was henceforth no tribal 



420 Women of the Bible 

privilege jealously kept within the narrow bounds of mere nation- 
ality 'The veil of the temple was rent at Jacob's well, and he who, 
til! then, as men thought, dwelt only in the narrow limits of the 
chamber it shrouded, went forth thence from this hour to conse- 
crate all the earth as one great holy of holies. Samaritans, 
heathen, Jews, were henceforth proclaimed children of a commoi. 
Heavenly Father, and Tesus, when he presently claimed to be the 
Messiah, announced himself as the Savior of the world. 

The answer which he gave to this woman's inquiry, was not 
in the spirit of the Greek philosophy which was the parent ot 
skepticism, nor in the Oriental spirit which was full of superstition, 
nor in the Roman spirit which was essentially worldly and reh- 
srious and far less did it breathe the contemporary Jewish spirit, 
whether of Pharisee or of Sadducee. It expresses the renuncia- 
tion of the senses in worship. It throws back upon the heart and 
soul of every one, whoever he may be, the whole office of worship 
It is the first gleam of the new morning. No longer m this nest 
alone nor in that, shall religion be looked for, but escaping from 
its shell, heard in all the earth, in notes the same in every language, 
flying unrestrained and free, the whole heavens shall be its sphere 
and the whole earth its home." 

The woman seems to have been made dizzy by the very sublim- 
ity of this discourse. Her question was answered and yet more 
than this was told her ; as between the Jews and the Samaritans, 
the lews were right ; but neither theory was absolutely vital. She 
was'interested in this stranger's discourses but how can she give 
up the faith of her fathers in which she had been born and bred? 
She is perplexed, but relieves herself by saying I know that the 
Messiah cometh; when be is come, he will tell us afl thing. 
These things which perplex and puzzle us now will all be made 
clear and plain then. The woman's wish to know the truth and her 
yearning for the coming of the Messiah, revealed a frame of mind 
ready for further light. "You need not wait," said he, "I that speak 
unto thee am he." ' The first revelation of the Savior was to the 
humble shepherds. The first announcement of himself as the 
Messiah was to a Samaritan woman. He did not untfl a mud 
later period declare his Messiahship to his own disciples H s 
doing so in this case took away sin from this woman and made 
lea missionary of the Messiah. The fact that she was an 



The Woman of Samaria — an Early Missionary 421 

uninfluential woman and a Samaritan may have made him more 
ready to reveal himself at this time. At that moment came the 
disciples and the conversation was interrupted. We have never 
ceased to wish their return had been delayed a little, for the con- 
versation had reached a pitch of intense interest, and we wonder 
what the next response would have been. 

The disciples found him talking with this woman, which was in 
violation of the customs of the age. He was a rabbi, and it was 
indecorous for them to speak to a woman, much more a Samaritan 
woman; but "no man said, Why talkest thou with her?" for his 
manner and bearing checked all familiarity. They asked him to 
eat, but his soul was full of other thoughts which so absorbed him 
that hunger was driven away. "I have food to eat that ye know 
not of," could suggest nothing to them, except that in their ab- 
sence some one had brought him food. Seeing their misconcep- 
tion of his meaning he says, "My meat is to do the will of him 
that sent me, and to finish his work." 

AYhether the woman gave him the asked-for drink, the record 
does not state. She is so surprised when she hears from this man's 
lips that he is the Messiah, that, forgetting her water-pot in her 
excitement, she starts back into the village to communicate the 
good news to others. She did not say, "Come and see the Christ," 
for of that she could not be sure, but "Come, see a man which told 
me all the things that ever I did." This she could know, and yet 
he had told her of but one thing. "There are certain experiences, 
however, which stand for the whole of one's life. It may be a 
great love, or a great defeat, or a great crime, or a measureless 
sorrow, or a joy lost irrecoverably; whatever it may be, there are 
experiences which epitomize our whole life and represent to our 
memory the very substance of life, everything besides being inci- 
dental and accessory. It was not his words alone, but with these 
there was a judicial solemnity, a piercing eye that seemed to her to 
search her very soul, a manner which showed that he sorrowed for 
her while he was exposing her career. And yet she had lived 
unabashed and content with herself. The whole narrative shows a 
woman not wholly sunk in evil, careful yet of appearances a 
woman quick of thought, fertile in expedients and possessed 'of 
much natural force. Love had not taught her delicacy or purity. 
One does not think pleasantly of five successive marriages, and is 



422 Women of the Bible 

not surprised that her last choice had not even the pretense of 

ma Thfcitizens of the village heard the invitation of this pleasure- 
seeking woman, and rushed out to see the man who had told her 
so many wonderful things. He pointed them out to his disciples 
as they came across the cornfields now tinged with green, and in 
the higher sense showed how these Samaritan fields were already 
in part by the effort of this woman, white for the harvest. And 
when these Samaritans had come unto this Jew, one of the hated 
race whom they were taught to despise, they surrounded him ad 
with entreaties thev besought him that he would come home and 
arry with them. For two days he remained with this people. 
What he said and did has not been recorded for us, but we do 
know that he who never let an opportunity go by unimproved, 
would do the very best for them he possibly could. His work was 
more successful "here than in Judea, for many believed on him. 
Some were aroused by the enthusiasm of the woman, but others 
were satisfied from his own teaching that he was indeed the 
Christ, the Savior of the world. We do not know that he wrought 
anv miracles among them, but they accepted the truth he taught 
and the truth made them free. "Though right from Jerusalem and 
from the temple, to the horror of every rightminded Pharisee, he 
accepted the hospitality of the Samaritans, slept under their 'roofs 
ate at their tables, taught in their streets, and altogether treated 
them as if they were as good as Jews.' _ 

One of the most touching things in this whole story is the 
humane manner of his treatment of a sinning woman He knew 
her tainted life. He knew that the whole world smiles upon the 
act of degrading a woman, and that the whole world puts the 
double sin upon her alone, hardly esteeming her paramour guilty 
at al but counting her sin utterly unforgivable. He who after- 
wards declared, 'the publicans and harlots go into the kingdom 
of God before vou/ here made it manifest that sin does not remove 
tne sinner lorn divine sympathy and love. Christ treated not tins 
careless shrewd, dexterous woman of the world with scorn or 
btter rebuke, fie made himself her companion. That which was 
divine in him had fellowship with that which was human m her. 
H i soul went out to her, not as a fire to consume but as a punfy- 
Z flame. This experience was a fit prelude to his now opening 



The Woman of Samaria — an Early Missionary 423 

public life. It was the text from which flowed two distinguishing 
elements of his ministry — sympathy for mankind, and the tenderest 
compassion for those who have sinned and stumbled. It revealed 
God's heart, sent the prophetic beam of reconciliation to each soul, 
and was the promise of that one family in Christ Jesus that was to 
comprise ever)'- nation and people on the globe." 

The ston' also reveals to us Christ's method of saving souls. 
'Though wearied he does not neglect the occasion and oppor- 
tunity afforded him ; he commences the conversation by a natural 
request ; he opens the woman's heart by asking from her a favor ; 
he passes by natural transition from the physical to the spiritual 
world, from nature to the truth which nature typifies ; he presents 
to her, not ethical, but spiritual truth, not the simple moralities, 
but the deep things of the gospel ; her badinage does not affront 
him, nor does he reprove her for it or indicate surprise, astonish- 
ment, or even objection; he answers by a direct and unanswerable 
appeal to her conscience, by convicting her of sin; in this, while 
his rebuke is sharp, his language is courteous, the language of 
commendation clothing condemnation ; having once awakened 
her conscience he does not pursue the rebuke ; leaving conscience 
to do its work, he suffers her to change the subject; he answers 
her theological question, not by direct response, but by asserting a 
principle of worship which lifts the soul above all the controversies 
respecting forms and methods of worship; finally he makes his 
first and fullest disclosure of his Messiahship to this Samaritan 
woman, showing himself most a Savior to her who most needs his 
salvation. His example thus illustrates the enthusiasm, the skill, 
the patience, and the spirituality needed for the most efficient, 
direct, personal work of soul-saving." 

By this little incident in daily life, a human heart is reached 
by divine truth and a human life changed. In this process comes 
a revelation of the highest truths which shall be for all ages. With 
the new zeal begotten by her new spiritual life, she goes forth as a 
missionary to her friends and neighbors, and leads them to the 
great healer, who has blessing for Jew and Samaritan, bond and 
free. Many believed on him, in part because of her statement, 
and in part because of the life-giving power of the truth he taught. 
The man who had been rejected by the proud, haughty doctors of 
divinity in Jerusalem, found willing hearts in these despised people 



424 Women of the Bible 

about Shechem. A nucleus has been formed here, and from its 
very nature it must spread from heart to heart. Years later, when 
Stephen was martyred and persecutions arose, the disciples were 
scattered, and wherever they went they preached the word. Philip 
went into Samaria and "preached Christ unto them. And the 
people with one accord gave heed unto those things which Philip 
spake, hearing and seeing the miracles which he did. For unclean 
spirits, crying with loud voice, came out of many that were pos- 
sessed with them: and many taken with palsies, and that were 
lame, were healed. And there was great joy in that city." May 
not the way have been prepared for this wonderful revival under 
Philip by the missionary work which was done near Shechem by 
the woman of Samaria ? 

"She left her pitcher at the well and to her home returned, 
The welcome words of life to bear, that in her full heart burned; 
Her kindred and the stranger's ear alike the news receive, 
Of water from a hidden spring the Saviour waits to give. 
With joyful haste and zealous love she turns to seek her home; 
The ceaseless burden of her theme : 'Behold, the Christ is come ! 
He waits— Messiah waits to bless, as none e'er blessed before; 
Come, drink ve of the living stream, believe and thirst no more; 
Come' and behold Messiah's face of whom the people tell; 
Oh, come and hear his holy voice, he waiteth by the well.' 
Oh, come to Christ! Samaria's hills echo his name aloud, 
Ajid tidings of Messiah flv amid the wondering crowd. 
Like her of Sychar, hast thou drank of that blest fount? Then go, 
Let others learn the priceless gifts that from the waters flow. 
Go forth; and in thv Saviour's strength thy voice shall yet } be heard, 
\nd wandering hearts shall turn and bless a feeble woman s word. 



JWartfja anfci fflwcy — 

ttie Petfjanp ^tsterg 



-One thing is known, and that one thing is of more value than all else 

C A A hffnuiet retreat during he troublous days which closed his earthly 
I?"; ^hle^hh ft choose* it as the last spot his feet should touch a 
he 'time of his ascension ; and which, in the future, marks it as the first 
spot on which his foot shall stand when he comes again into^ 

"Oh Master, when thou comest, it is always 
A Sabbath in the house. I cannot work; 
I must sit at thy feet, must see thee hear thee! 
I have a feeble, wayward, doubting heart, 
Incapable of endurance, or great thoughts, 
Striving for something that it cannot reach, 
Baffled and disappointed, wounded hungry, 
And only when I hear thee am I happy, 
And only when I see thee am I at peace. 
Stronger than I, and wiser and tar better 
In everv manner, is my sister, Martha. 
You see how well she orders everything 
To make thee welcome ; how she comes and goes 
Careful and cumbered ever with much serving, 
While I but welcome thee with foolish words; 
Whene'er thou speakest to me I am happy; 
When thou art silent, I am satisfied; 
Thv presence is enough, I ask no more. 
Onlv to be with thee, only to see thee 
Sufficeth me. My heart is then at rest. 
I wonder I am worthy of so much. ■ , „ 

1 wonaer _ Longfe ) loW} in "The Divufe Tragedy. 



JWartfm antr ifWarp— tfje ?Setf)att|> ftfeter* 



IN November, 1881, with a little company of travelers, the 
writer came, late one day, to a small town east of Jerusalem, 
called by the natives, El Azariyah, after the name of Lazarus. 
Even before we reached the town, a score or more of Arab chil- 
dren crowded around us, clamoring for "baksheesh." It had a 
small population of fanatical Moslem people, who dwelt in some 
forty houses or huts. They have low stone walls and flat roofs, 
and present a rude appearance. In the midst of these unpleasant 
surroundings, he tried to picture to himself the little family that 
years before had dwelt there, and the kindly reception they gave 
to the Friend of sinners who journeyed through their town, and 
was hospitably entertained at their home. 

_ The Bible tells us comparatively little about them, and tra- 
dition has been busy in supplying theories and false histories to 
supplement what the Scriptures have omitted. From this mass 
of conjecture we must accept what seems to us the more reason- 
able..- The father was probably Simon, the leper, whose death 
or banishment from society, according to the civil law, placed 
his three children, Martha, Mary, and Lazarus, in possession of 
a comfortable estate. Simon was a Pharisee, and this is one 
reason, probably, why so many of this class visited these sisters 
and condoled with them at the time of their brother's death. 
These men were not all severe and bigoted in their judgments 
and inconsistent in their practice, as many of them seemed to 
have been. As they are photographed in the Scriptures, we have 
pleasant memories of Joseph and Nicodemus, and the Bethanv 
family seemed to have been of this better class. In such a family 
it is almost certain these children would be trained up, as was 
Paul, to be strictly orthodox. When we consider the influence 
of such instruction upon one's early life and associations, and its 
tendency to make one narrow in his opinions and severe in his 
judgments, we are more and more surprised at the warm friend- 
ship which this family manifested toward Christ, and their con- 



428 Women of the Bible 

fession of faith in him. The testimony of Martha especially was 
not that of a common, uncultured, unfeeling peasant, but of a 
woman of good judgment, of plain, practical sense, and more or 
less familiar with the trend of thought of the religious men of her 
time The family seems to have been one of wealth and of social 
distinction This is indicated bv the fact that they owned their 
own home, had their burial place in their own garden, and were 
able to give three hundred dollars worth of ointment as a costly 

token of honor to Jesus. # 

How this household first became acquainted with Jesus, we do 
not know The first reference made to the family is in Luke 
a certain village : and a certain woman named Martha received 
10 • 38 • "Now it came to pass, as they went, that he entered into 
him into her house." This is the first record we have of them, but 
they had evidently not only met before, but were intimately 
acquainted. At this very time the members of this family were all 
disciples of his. They were so near Jerusalem that they would 
hear much of what was transpiring there, and like Simeon and 
Anna they were of the more pious and devoted Jews, who were 
lookino- for the consolation of Israel. They may have become 
converts during his early Judean ministry, possibly because of 
some miraculous cures effected by him. The event mentioned 
here occurred some time during his itinerant ministry. It may 
have been as he was going toward Jerusalem, or as he was leaving 
the city Bethany was easily reached. It was only three-quarters 
of an hour's distance from Jerusalem, but hidden from it by a 
spur of the Mount of Olives. At that time the houses white- 
washed and flat-roofed, lay hidden among the surrounding heights 
amidst green fields and trees of many kinds. "In this sequestered 
spot Jesus found a delightful retreat in the vine-covered cottage 
of Marv and Martha and Lazarus. Loving and beloved, it always 
afforded a peaceful retreat from the confusion and dangers of 
the temple courts, or the more exhausting circuits of his northern 
journeys It was the one spot, so far as we know, that he could 
call home in these last months, but it was apparently the sweetest 
and the most like home he had ever had." 

"Her home " would indicate that Martha was the head of the 
household, and'therefore the elder sister. This is probably not the 
first time that her door has opened to welcome this delightful 



Martha and Mary — the Bethany Sisters 429 

Friend, before whom the door of any mansion might well spring 
open. No matter how humble our houses may be, we may be 
neglected by the rich and the great, but the divine Guest will come 
into our humble dwelling places if we desire him, and bring to 
our wearied spirits words of hope and cheer. It is more than 
likely that his disciples were also present with him, and so large 
a company would naturally make a good housekeeper a little 
anxious as to how she could best provide for them. We are told, 

"Martha was cumbered" — distracted would be a better term as 

to how to entertain them in a manner commensurate with her love 
for her Lord. Without really intending it, her attention seems to 
have been drawn away from the Master, and was fixed upon the- 
meal she was providing. To use one of our more modern phrases, 
she was "flying around" in her efforts to do well by her guests/ 

While Martha was manifesting this purturbed spirit, Mary, 
her sister, had for the time turned away from the kitchen with its' 
mills, its cakes, its pottage, and had sought the place where the 
guests were at rest. In this room, either seated or reclining on 
divans, as was the Eastern custom, were Jesus and his disciples. 
Mary came and sat and "heard his word." We do not know the 
nature of that conversation. There was nothing incident to the 
comfort and welfare of human life in which he was not interested. 
Even the little cares and perplexities which to those in its ordinary 
circles make up the sum of human life, could not have been too 
small for the thought of one who tenderly sympathizes with all 
true living. Most likely at this special time his own direct work 
and mission lay close upon his heart. The conversation probably 
turned on the things that belonged to the kingdom of God. Mary, 
who was a disciple and interested in these things, listened to his 
words and became a student of his teachings. The opportunity to 
commune with the Master and to be instructed by him, had ab- 
sorbed her heart and occupied her thought more than had the pre- 
paring of a special feast for him. 

_ At this moment a discordant voice is heard in connection with 
this conversation. Martha comes to the room where the guests 
are gathered and says to the Master, TLord, dost thou not care 
that my sister hath left me to serve aldne?" j "Hath left me" may 
mean that Mary had taken no part in the preparation at all, and 
was allowing Martha to do all the housework; or it may mean 



/ 



/ 



430 Women of the Bible 

that Mary had helped for a time, hut had afterwards ■f^akeaher 
This might lead to the supposition that Mary had helped in the 
preparations that were necessary, but had declined to help in those 
not needed. Martha does not mean to say that Jesus did not care, 
fo her very language implies that he did care and would agree 
St. her as to Mary's duty. The sister's conduct seemed to 
Martha a kind of selfishness. She could not comprehend under 
the present circumstances, her absorption in the ruth or he 
eacher Jesus, in response to her question, tells her that she is too 
niuch divided in mind between the claims of the spiritual and h 
earthly and as the result she is unduly agitated. He does not 
buke'her for her serving but for being careful and trouWed 
•about much serving; and he does not chide her un ^ shears urn 
to chide her sister. Christ did not care for bodily indulgence, 
cimnle food a single dish, what was necessary for physical sup- 
pTt wa ail' sufficient for him, because spiritual_ food is the one 
essential thing. Simple provision for the body is sufficient, and 

mU ?,rc^iTof Martha has often been misunderstood. She 
is not a worldly woman, whose soul is still immersed in the pots 
and nans of her own kitchen; not one whose bustle and energy in 
£ own Sphere, in keeping a model house, free from dus t and 
dirt, have made her a source of unrest and annoyance to a 1 the 
other members of the family. She was a true disciple of the Lord 
Into her home Jesus came and loved to come, and loved all the 
members of the family. This home was to him like the shadow o 
a great rock. Wearied with his perpetual conflicts with the priest 
n'd Pharisees in the temple, he came here for peace .and quiet and 
found ready listeners who drank in all he said It was Martha 
Z was m stress of the house andniade it so pleasant a place for 
hina "WhS then was her fault? In her hospitable intent, she 
—rated the importance of the physical ministry to her guests 
Her™ oyal heart wished to show the utmost honor to Christ 
but it^raTa mistake to suppose that Jesus was most honored by a 
tnnntous feast He would have been better honored by sufficient 
o TZ .Son, and for the rest by ^&£*»£ 
instructed by him in spiritual truths. The Savioi is better pleased 
o Sve ton to receive. He is the giver of every perfect gift . He 
came to give eternal life to men. The more we rece.ve from him, 




^ 



Martha and Mary — the Bethany Sisters 431 

the more clearly do we follow along the line of his eternal purpose 
and grace to men." 

"In studying this incident, we observe that both Martha and 
Mary were disciples of Christ. They represent, not the contrast 
between the followers of Christ and the followers of the world, 
but between different types of piety in the church. Martha's 
much serving was for the Lord. She desired to prepare a worthy 
entertainment, one worthy as an offering to him, and worthy as a 
manifestation of her own hospitality 7 . Love and pride combined to 
prompt her activity. A social lesson lies on the surface of the 
incident/ Much serving is not the best serving. The housekeeper 
is not always a homekeeper. Less supper and more heart, rather 
than less heart and more supper, give the best entertainment. The 
religious lesson is one preeminently needed in our era. Not he 
who asks most for Christ, but he who receives most from Christ, 
serves him best. To sit at his feet and learn, is always more 
acceptable than to be careful and troubled about much serving. 
Both types, the meditative and the active, are needed in the church, 
both are combined in the well-developed character. Christ xlid 
much serving, going about doing good, ministering to the body as 
well as to the soul ; but he also sought opportunity for retirement, 
for solitude, and for communion with God." 

The next news we have of these sisters is when death comes 
to desolate their home. No home is so happily located that this 
dread monster shall not enter it. The brother, the only brother, 
is taken suddenly sick and his life is threatened. There does not 
seem to be any probability of human relief. If the Master were 
only here he could help them, but he is absent, having been driven 
away by the hatred of the Jewish rulers. He had come to the 
feast of dedication. As it was in the winter, it was too unpleasant 
to teach and to preach on the open streets. So we find him talking 
to the people in Solomon's temple, on the east side. His Judean 
ministry up to this time had lasted about three months. It had 
been a ministry of continuous storm. "Twice during this period 
he had been mobbed ; once an attempt had been made to arrest 
him ; secret plans for his assassination were laid. At this time 
they endeavored to seize him and bring him before the authorities 
for trial, but he slipped away from them. In order to preserve 
his life, as his work was not yet done, he w r ent away again beyond. 



432 Women of the Bible 

Jordan into the place where John at first baptized, and there lie 
abode, and many resorted unto him, and many believed on him 

there." 

He is in the country of Perea, east of the Jordan, where these 
afflicted sisters send a messenger to him. It is in the rainy season, 
a distance of more than a score of miles away, over a rough road, 
where the man fell among thieves, down by the Jordan valley. 
Having reached this spot, he must cross the river and find the 
Christ wherever he may be. These sisters send a very tender 
message, saying to him, "He whomjthou-ievest is sick." This of 
course was their own brother, Lazarus, but they know Jesus would 
need no other designation than the one they had given him.^ There 
are no urgent, pressing words to come and help them in their 
extremity. There is no mention that their hearts are about ready 
to break at the possibilities which await them. They know that he 
well understood that no ordinary conditions of affairs would have 
led to such a message as this. The information is sent to him and 
he will know what is best to do. If best to come back again, in 
face of the dangers which threatened him when here, he will come. 
This one personal friend whom he has outside of the apostolic 
band, will not be neglected or forgotten. Does he come at once? 
No but he sends unto these stricken sisters this apparently en- 
couraging message, 'This sickness is not unto death, but for the 
glory of God." Time is now valuable and the messenger will 
hurry back with it to soothe these sorrowful sisters. He hastens 
down the hills to the fording of the river, crosses the Jordan, 
passes through the city of Jericho, and across its plain covered with 
palm trees, and up through the dangerous mountain passes along 
the road to Jerusalem. He reaches Bethany, and hurrying into 
their vine-covered home amid the olives, brings to the sisters the 
comforting words, "This sickness is not unto death " How sur- 
prised he must be, if not indeed amazed, when he finds that 
Lazarus is already dead ; possibly was dead before he reached the 
Jordan on his outward journey. How strangely the words of the 
message must have sounded in the face of the event that had just 
occurred Was the Master himself deceived, or was he a de- 
ceiver? How could he so have misunderstood the case? What 
must have been the thoughts of the sisters in the face of this 
message and the sad affliction which had befallen them? 




< 

K 

Q 

h- 1 

H 
tn 
i— i 

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Martha and Mary — the Bethany Sisters 433 

After having heard of this serious sickness of his friend 
through the messenger, Christ abode two days "in the same place" 
where he then was. Why did he do this ? If "Jesus loved Martha 
and her sister and Lazarus," why not hasten to help them? It 
might have been that it was necessary to complete the work in 
which he was engaged, and from which he could not allow himself 
to be drawn away even by considerations of personal sympathy • 
or because the delay was necessary for the consummation of the 
p '?* °, f th f resurrection which no doubt he intended to work 
but Gods delays are not denials." The officials want him -to 
condemn him, and the road is a dangerous one, but he will face 
the difficulties, and so he says to his disciples, "Let us go into 
Judea again They remind him that the Jews had sought to 
stone him when there before. There is just now no immediate 
danger in his going, for when one is fulfilling the divine will he 
will be protected. Thomas was sure he saw not only danger but 
even death m the trip, and so he says, "Let us go that we may die 
with him. I„ the meantime the sisters, who had given up all 
hope of his coming at this time, bury their dead out of their sight 
In their judgment there is really no need why he should come now' 
They do not expect him, yet he is coming. The disciples object 
to his going, but he will go and call back again that friend to life 

As he comes near the town he is met outside with the informa- 
tion that Lazarus had been buried four days. Two of these days 
possibly had been consumed by Christ in completing his ministry 
at the place where the messenger had met him with his sad mes- 
sage, and two more on his journey down to the ford across the 
Jordan, and to the town of Bethany. The family are in the midst 
of their mourning and he will not press himself upon this home 
now filled with grief, where he shall find many of the Pharisees 
who have shown themselves to be his deadly enemies. In some 
way, information comes to Martha that Jesus is not far away in 
fact, ,s just outside the town. "To Christ, the conventional 
monrmng customs of Oriental society were exceedingly distaste- 
ful. He who put all the noisy mourners out of the room in which 
the daughter of Jairus lay dead, and who so gently rebuked the 
noisy and ostentatious lamentations of the wonfen of Jeru a em at 
the time of his own crucifixion, might naturally be expected to 
decline to enter mto the circle of formal mourners with tdi falter- 



M 




434 Women of the Bible 

{mP utL as soon as she hears of his presence, turns away from 
Martha, as soon as pi,, ri sees a nd others who had come 

her old acquaintances and the Phan ^> *™ ™ she leaves the 
^-fr^-f 1iPr after the manner ot tne times, one it^v 

of a brother who had e ^^^?^ ^ t^od in the 

Sfen Ta e it S donht s^of them had passed through s/milar 
fences, for human nature is the same m ah times. / 

beent^^^^ 

of reproach as we ls >™^ mes f trouble and bereavement 

™«*« itl 75j t £ S ^- o| I 5ffi., "if," arid we have again 
we have all felt -the H ^rce ot . f ^ ^ ^ 

and again said to ourselves, 11 v e one 

m ade that b under, if our ^^JJ^J not h ^ died . But 
else had made no mistake, out oeioyen wu 
maybe there is still some comfort for hei. Had he been here, 



Martha and Mary— the Bethany Sisters 435 

would have been well. Now that he is here he may help us to 
better bear our grief. Even now "whatsoever thou shalt ask of 
God, God will give it thee." Her heart went out to him with a 
vague, restless hope of some succor or consolation, she knew not 
what. 

The Master says to her, "Thy brother shall rise again." This 
thought is not new to her and does not bring any present relief. 
There seems to be a little impatience implied in her answer, "Yes* 
I know that. He shall rise again in the resurrection at the last 
day." The Pharisees and other friends, no doubt, had been con- 
soling her with that thought. Like the Jews of her time she be- 
lieved that the spirit of her brother had gone to the abode of the 
dead, and was there awaiting a day of judgment and of resurrec- 
tion. But this was so far in the future it did not bring present 
comfort. Is there nothing for this hour that shall help me to bear 
this great loss ? There then fell from his lips those words first 
spoken to Martha, but which have brought comfort to broken- 
hearted men and women during all these intervening centuries 
1 hey are read at almost every funeral ; they are engraved on the 
rocks in almost every cemetery ; they are enshrined in the very 
deepest recesses of human hearts : "I am the resurrection, and the 
hie; he that believeth in me, though he were dead, yet shall he 
live: and whosoever liveth and believeth in me, shall never die 
Behevest thou this?" 

There is still no promise of help for her. What meaning did 
these impressive words convey to her? It was a statement that 
Jesus is the source of the resurrection and the fountain of life 
\\ hoever, therefore, by faith in Christ has in him the hope of 
glory never knows death; to him there is no Hades, no dark 
and dismal^ abode of the dead, no long and weary waiting for a 
nnal great jail delivery— a judgment and an acquittal. He passes 
at once from the lower to the higher state; he has already come 
to the general assembly and church of the firstborn. What we call 
death summons him simply to depart and be straightway with 
Christ. The eternal life which Christ here and now gives to those 
who are by faith united to him, is never suspended, so immortal 
and potent is this life principle which Christ offers to those who 
have received him, that if it were possible that one having died 
should receive it, he would by it be made to live again " 



436 Women of the Bible 

Martha expresses her faith in his Messiahship and in this she 
finds some relief. ' If at his word all the dead shall come to judg- 
ment Tn the nature of the case, the day of general resurrection 
c nno he very far distant, and it will not be long untd she shal 
s e her brother. During this time and up to tins moment, she had 
been conversing with the Master without the presence of her 
sister At his suggestion she calls Mary. The latter may not have 
known of the presence of Jesus as soon as Martha had known it 
Martha, beingthe head of the household would most hkdy tor 
of his arrival, while Mary, having no information on the subject 
sat ill in the desolation of her sorrow. Martha went secretly, 
Srhts desiring that she and her sister shod hav, = some con- 
ference with Christ without the presence of others. When Mary 
ame where Jesus was, she threw herself at his fc*£^J 
of salutation ordinarily paid to a superior, and addressed him in 
ihe same <ad words used by Martha not long before. 

JesTs mquhed where they had laid him, and they led the way 
to the sepulcher. Silent tears trickled down his cheeks or, 
hough theSon of God, he was no less the Son of man, and like 
our eWe was moved with the sight of human sorrow. He asks 
the bvstanders, who had gathered by this time to take away the 
stone whe closed the entrance to the tomb. Martha supposing 
he want once more to look on the face of his dead friend sug- 
gest at decomposition has probably already set m, for he has 
fe n buried four V She finally withdrew her remons prance 
for the stone was rolled away. After prayer to God, he cried 
with a loud voice, Lazarus, come forth. And he that was dead 

^ Wetave often wondered what Lazarus, the brother, heard and 

saw during those four days. When he once more reached his 

former 1 "me and sat down again with bis sisters, his tongue may 

W been loosed and he may have related to them the incidents of 

hs woudefu journey. After enjoying for so long a time the 

M s edne s of the other world, did it not require a struggle to ^ear 

himself away and to come back again to the scenes of his eariy 

ton and suffering? Was there not at times a far-away look on his 

face and did l! not appear as if his thoughts were elsewhere? 

Wfme It was a great gain and a great joy to "s sisters to have him 

with them, was it not a great sacrifice for mm? Did it seem to 



Martha and Mary— the Bethany Sisters 437 

him like the same old world he had left? Did he not long to -o 
££ "depart? "* * """^ "* * ^ ^ « nt « * e time 
It was six days before the passover which has been made 
memorable by its connection with the death of Jesus when he 

mo^infof F M^T" ■ ^ ^ m0St ^ '^Jericho on tne 

cTe g rt r y ' V 'n g ? £nt tHe PreCedin & ni ^ with Zac- 

cheus 1 he day was well advanced when he reached the village 

of Bethany. Here he spent the next day, the Sabbath, the last one 

pent on tins earth before his death. Its hours were spent fn holy 

— °" n the "^ * !t Iing6red l0n £ after with ^ in- 
mates of that home, all of whom were his devoted friends The 

Jew,sh Sabbath closed at sunset and after this, as a rule' came 

m?the n St m O °t- he ^ W ^? 3t timeS WaS P^°^ed ev"n 
into the night. On this occasion "they made him a supper " show- 

mgjhat this special meal was in honor of their d^giuSd 



guest. 



L, Wh ° '™ de the , s »PP er « not distinctly stated. It was in the 

! Iie Tedof ^ the K Pen S r° me S " PP ° Sed that he ™ be 
healed of Ins leprosy by our Lord, but still retained the name 

winch indicated his former misfortune. Others think the II 
was at Martha's house, that her father had been Simon the 'eX 
and that the house still went by his name. The disciples were 

toTdThaR" 2" memb , e " °l the **"* h ° USeh ^ ^e 
told that Martha served." As in the beginning, so now her 

household^,, is spent in honoring the Master, w'e lathing 

at tl is time of the burden of too severe a service. "The Master'! 

reouke, the chastening of her recent great affliction, the tempering 

1 fluence o gratitude for the gift of a brother's life, all had'sep"- 

rated the dross from her willing work and enabled her to wait 

upon her beloved Lord with a heart open to his words- andTh 

was a sweeter service than ever she had wrought before. The que 

tTar^e ^ *"*?."" ** ac ««ce, does not'here 

appear, there is no complaint that another had left to her the 
burden and heat of the day; no echo is heard upon her lips of he 

KSiSTt* , Mary ' s waste - No > rather > hers - - d °^ 

W to One T a " Wan T St commenda t-o" of an act that gave 
honor to One who was worthy of the costliest and the best." 



438 Women of the Bible 

The tables in those days were arranged in the form of a 
hohlw square, open at one'end, so the gaiters would have e^y 
access Alongside of the tables, on three different sides, were 
couches on which the guests were stretched, reclining u ? on the 
Suows with *e left side and using the right arm for taking food. 
W ith the body stretched backwards and the feet with or without 
andals reaching out over the couch, it was easy for one to do wha 
lVarv did and which was not an unusual thing to do in the case ot 
£ Luished Quests. The use of fragrant oils and ointments was 
v rv Smmon among the ancients, who anointed themselves two 
oTLee Tmes a day" in order that the delicious fragrance might 
ot h P dissToated The wealthier classes carried their ointments 
r P erf«ms P in stall boxes of costly material and beautiful work 
manship Whether this ointment of spikenard was a part of the 
toUet arrangements of Marv, or a gift treasured up and kept for 
p Ll ocXns, we do noi know, but evidently m her Hgmen 
there could not be a more fitting occasion than this. Her de hcate 
taste would find pleasure in such costly perfumes. When she 
came to the banquet she brought this rich perfume with he* Its 
value in our money is estimated Uifree hundred doUa^J 

"Then took Mary a pound of ointment of spitoiarfl, very 
costly and anointed the feet of Jesus, and wiped 1 J» feet with her 
hair and the house was filled with the odour of the ointment 
ft was a thought born of woman's graceful piety; an inspiration 
of tot enthusiastic love which so often overleaps the ploddings 
°o reasoning, the halting of prudence, the ^f^^g 
the barriers of punctilio and the graspmgs of pelf, and sees tne 
sweetest and noblest thing to do, and with the happiest manner 
ToTs it awakening the murmurs of the P^Jf ~"i2S 
the aooroval of the future and above all of the eternal Lora 
Tie apostle murmured, led on by Judas with his hypocritical 



Th s act on Mary's part was an act of worship That which 
was in itseH costly and beautiful to her womanly heart, she 
poured form freeh/to honor him. Can anything be too goo or 
L rn( . tlv f or those we love the most intensely ? It was not an 
act done y for the purpose of securing the applause of the mult,- 




Martha and Mary— the Bethany Sisters 439 

tude; not even to gratify her own sense of beauty and enjoyment 
but the natural and simple expression of her feelings toward the 
one she loved "Verily I say unto you, Wheresoever this gospel 
shall be preached ,n the whole world, there shall also this^ that 
this woman hath done, be told for a memorial of her," affirmed the 
Master himself. /"It hath been so not only of Mary, but of 
every woman whose sweet piety has brought anointing to Tesus 
he rudest men have seen, honored, and yielded before it. Upon 
the unbelieving woman, the world looks with vivid, wondering and 
abhorrent eyes or pays her the high compliment of unbelief of 
her sincerity. But the pious woman raises around her name in 
every community and well nigh in every heart, a memorial' of 
sincere respect and reverence. Yes, fair and more enduring than 

a shah e ^ °" ** ^ * Shaft ° r d ° me that ™*al 

art shall ever rear, is that monument which love and pietv raised 

for Mary of Bethany and shall raise for you, if you too break 
the precious nard upon the feet of Jesus " 

_ We hear nothing further of Martha and Mary by name after 
this anointing. VVe must remember this was the fast week o 

Beth, nt I a " d th3t T he " ° Ut ° f th£ Ch y he s P ent his nighTs in 
Bethany It was not far away, and yet it was the distance he 

tween a battlefield and a home ; from tumult and rio and m urder" 

to love rest and tender ministry. "It was worth while making 

that little change for one night, one quiet look upward onT brief 

and solemn pause in the rush of life, that the head might turn 

zi Thfho and : h p fi , mament and «* ■«•**■ ° f «- «pp 

fined witwi " 0us f, at , B f than y ™> not grand, but the home was 

tress 111" g ° f l0Ve - We Wam SUch a home -hen the 
stress s heavy upon us ; tears could be shed there without bein°- 

misunderstood, and the heart could tell its whole tale or remain 

m total silence, just as the mood determined, and there would be 

no misconstruction. It was a church in the rocks, it was a sweet 

acrifi ,a e ry ' TT ° f th fi 6 f n Wgh r ° ad ° f «** business and 

= m k .1 • , Ca " flnd a Beth any, a home, a rest-place a 

Sabbath in the midst of the week, can bear his bu dens with enua 

mmity and grace and hope." q a " 

This was a week of no little anxietv to these sisters When 

he cares and toils and struggles of the' day were over he lu d 
come from this surging city, where dwelt his bigoted and wicked 



440 Women of the Bible 

foes who were the leaders in the Jewish church, and who should 
have been his friends, and spend the night under Martha s roof 
and in the seclusion and affection of her home^ The tumults and 
trials of the day will be talked over, and in the presence of the 
tender affection and gentle sympathy which he found there he 
would gather strength for the coming morrow. Wrfhwhat 
anxiety they would look for his return in the evening. Knowing 
Z Pharisees as she did, and that they would stop at nothing, no 
even murder itself, to accomplish their purposes, Martha saw _th 
Lord's peril and must have had some misgivings as to the Una 
end So day by day, with anxious, troubled heart, she ministered 
to his wants, and made her house a haven of rest and comfort, 
where his tired body and wearied spirit could find peace and quiet 
The end which she dreaded has come at last. His^enemies are 
apparently successful, and her loved one is dead. He «o more 
shall frequent her home and bring joy and gladness, as he had 
don afore time. Her hands shall no more find pleasure , m mm 
• istering to his physical wantJ. The very kindness which had , 
brought back her lost brother tX her arms had hastened his death 
This miracle had so intensified the opposition of his enemies that 
they sought not only his death, but the death of Lazarus himself, 
who was a living witness of his wonderful power. Their mourn- 
X iHot yet over when one morning, over the hills and down 
hf lope of Olivet, comes the cheering news, "The Lord « nsen. 
Those sisters wouid be among the first to whom *e astonished 
apostles would communicate the joyful information. May we no 
hope that during those days of tarrying before his final exi , he 
agdn visited that home in Bethany, dear to him by - many pleas- 
ant memories. It was in sight of that home where he : stood one 
day to say farewell words to his disciples. "He led them out as 
far" as to Bethany, and he lifted up his hands, and blessed them^ 
When the cloud had finally received him out of their sight, these 
apostles returned to the city, and having sought .an upper room 
where they could commune with each other and wi h God, the 
"all continued with one accord in prayer and supplication mth 
the women and Mary, the mother of Jesus, and with his brethren. 
May we not reasonably presume that Martha if not mde d bo 1 
of these Bethany sisters, was in that group of women who were 
united with others in praying for the descent of the Holy Spirit? 



Martha and Mary— the Bethany Sisters 441 

"It is wonderful how sharply and truly, in a narrative so 
bnef the characters of Martha and Mary are individualized. 
Martha, in her Judean dress and surroundings, is, after all exactly 
such a good woman as is often seen in our modern life ; a woman 
primarily endowed with the faculties necessary for getting on in 
*ewor]d yet sincerely religious. She is energetic, business-like, 
-matter-of-fact, strictly orthodox, and always ready for even: 
emergency She lives in the present life strongly and intensely, 
and her religion exhibits itself through regular forms and agen- 
cies. She believes in the future life orthodoxly, and is alwavs 
piompt to confess its superior importance as a matter of doc- 
trine, though prone to make material things the first in practice 

Sh a W ° m i! n the , re , are in the Wgh pIaces of the Chri^i 3 " 
church, and much good they do. They manage fairs, they dress 

Churches, they get up religious festivals, their names are on com- 
mittees, they are known at celebrations. They rule their own 
homes with activity and diligence, and they are justly honored by 

hlTr fT" r u N ° W ' " 0thing is more remarkable in the 
history of Jesus than the catholicity of his appreciations of char- 

nf f i u " eV , er °T d fauIt With natural organization, or ex- 
pected all people to be of one pattern. He did not break with 
1 nomas for being naturally a cautious doubter, or Peter for being 
a Precipitate believer ; and it is specially recorded in the history 
of this family that Jesus loved Martha. He understood her he 
appreciated her worth, and he loved her 

natures ^Z 7 ^ *? tyP ? ° f th ° Se dee P er and ™ re "native 
natures who ever aspire above and beyond the material and 

temporal to the eternal and divine; souls that are "king and 
inquiring with a restlessness that no earthly thing can satisfv 
who can find no peace until they find it in union with God " 3 ' 
The Bethany home, like all other homes, was in time dis- 
solved, and the members of it are, no doubt, with their Lord in 
glory. The mistress of this earthly home threw open the door 
of her house and of her heart to admit this Guest, and long since 

" n V the S f^ " W6re thrOW " ° Pen t0 admit her -d her familv 
In the future ages ,t may be our happiness to see and know 
those whose history has touched our hearts so deeply " 



-.. .. f JJtarp Jflagfcralene 

<Et)e (Ptljer Jtlarpgj j«ars>— »rte of ciopa* 

I JWarp— jfflotfjer of jfitarfe 



"Women, attracted bv his absolute goodness, lay their loving homage at 
his feet. Like the wife of Chuza, they ministered to him of their sub- 
stance ; like Martha, they opened to him the doors of their houses ; like the 
woman in the Pharisee's dining-hall, they sought from his grace the pardon 
of his sins. They followed him, weeping, on the road to Golgotha; they 
stood beneath his cross; they were present at his burial; they were the 
first at the empty sepulcher ; Mary of Magdala, forgetting her own lack of 
strength, would bear away his corpse; Mary of Bethany, unconscious of 
her love, brings precious ointment to anoint his body for the burial ; while 
Mary of Nazareth, taught by the bitter sword which pierced her mother's 

heart, remembers as she sees him die." 

— Bernard. 



Jltarp jfttagbalene 



• 

ON the southeastern corner of the plain of Gennesaret stands 
a little village named Magdala, from which, most likely 
Mary .Magdalene takes her name. There were other Marys' 
who were personal friends of Christ, and it was not unlikely that 
this one was named from the town in which she lived It is 
located about half way between Capernaum in the north and 
I iber.as qn the south. It is now hnown by the name of Miqdal 
When we were there, a few .rears since, the writer saw a goodly- 
sized stone structure, which, it was asserted, marked her grave 

tl ™ a /! g ab ° M twdve feet SC1Uare > and ma >' ~ntain' 

the remains of this woman. The town is of little importance and 

the inhabitants do not seem of much more value. We saw a dozen 

' LIT t^Tu ' laIf ° f them naked > whose ° rf y th °"gl« was 
baksheesh About twenty rude huts complete the town 

After she was cured by Christ, we find her ministering to him 

si e 1/ ' 3 r "^ ° ther W ° men ' Whidl wou,d indi - te *a 

SmfortahlA c S ° n f Pr ° Perty ' and if so ' must have "* d a 

comfortable home. So far as natural surroundings were con- 
cerned, her home must have been a pleasant one, especially when 
the country was settled, the vessels on the sea and he fishelen 
doing a thnvmg business. Then the cities along the coast were 
ahve and prosperous. West of her were the high hills on wh ch 

t SeSs^dtt her early days to Iook - the « ^ 

are'of the ° nS ^ ^^ '^ haS 6StabIished for the ^' 
Jh s trJt Pe ° P ,' ' ", tCrmed Ma S d a>ene asylums. And yet 
this tradition, namely, that she was a lewd woman before her 

£wk2S Ch !V . " V ame -«ho„t a word or syllable in 

o the P J , V USUiy any S " ch Char ^ e - The whole tenor 

of the Gospels ,s rather proof to the contrary. The best and 

earliest writings among the church fathers ar/against th tra - 



446 Women of the Bible 

dition Clement, of Alexandria, and Tertullian say nothing of it 
then 'th eyTpeak of Christ's anointing. Irenaens opposes it and 
o does Origen, and with him the succeeding expositors of the 
astern church. Theophilus of Antioch, Macar.us Chrysostom, 
Theophylact, and among our more recent writers, Calvin Grot uos 
Bengel, Alford Steir, Meyer, . Olshausen, all reject tins ancient 

^ When this slander started on its unfortunate journey, we do 
not know. Two or three reasons may be sugge sted > which w>l 
help to account for its origin. It is said that out of her were 
cast "seven devils." How natural in those days, and how prev- 
alent the spirit still, to conclude that such a misfortune must be 
accompanied with some dreadful sin. The Jews were disposed to 
believe that the eighteen upon whom the tower of Si oam f. 11, 
must have been sinners above all men, else why should I such a 
misfortune come upon them? So the inquiry goes about con 
cerning the blind man, "Who did sin, this man or his P^nts 
and yet his misfortune was not the result of direct sin on the 
part of either. If a man be suddenly killed in some railroad ac- 
cident if parties be burned to death in a building, or if any other 
sudden misfortune come upon them, many persons are sure it is 
a judgment for some secret sin. How natural to conclude hat 
there must have been something atrocious in this woman s life, 
or she would not have been so unfortunate. 

Christ's treatment of these people was very considerate 1 he 
story mentioned in John 8 (which some manuscripts omit), tells 
us of the woman taken in adultery and brought to Christ for tna . 
There is also the story of the woman of Samaria who talked wi h 
him at the well, and the "woman who was a sinner, who 
anointed him at the Pharisee's house. These were forgiven and 
cleansed, and their names were probably purposely concealed L So 
far as we know every one of these women, who sinned against 
woman y virtue is nameless. This is not the way of the world 
to-day. Even our own sisters, as well as the male sex, are willing 
to fix the stigma of shame upon her, and often aim to call up her 
old life even when she has honestly repented and is seeking to 
atone for it in every part. It is hardly likely that this treatment 
w nld have been cnanged in a case of this land by .announcing 
to the world the name of this one woman if she had led a bad life. 



Mary Magdalene 447 

And more than this, the very Pharisees who were seeking in every 
way to hinder his work, and who blamed him for eating with 
publicans and sinners, would only have been too glad to have 
added to these other charges, the scandal of associating with a 
woman who had lived an impure life. They had said "Behold 
a man gluttonous and a wine-bibber," and they would have been 
glad to add to that, "Behold, a man the associate of harlots " 
in a sense all sinners were alike to him, yet all his acts were dis- 
tinguished by the most becoming propriety, and the fact that this 
woman next to his own mother, was his constant and most de- 
voted friend is a strong proof that her early life was not in any 
way tainted by the things which are now alleged against her 
Thi s belief concerning Mary Magdalene may have in part ori^i- 

in chant:' 11 ;. ^T^ "* ?»"* ^ *~ U * * L ^ c 

old of M /p - hlS ? t0ry ' S som ewhat similar to the one 

pl? t , ry Betna " y ' '" John 12: U8 ' B y some, Mary of 

taSrif W C WOm T , Wh ° W3S a Si " ner > and Maf y Magdalene, 

ere I T "S aS ,° ne ^ &e Saille Person, whereas they 

mav have L P ;° bab f y ' ?T ^ PerS ° nS ' and the last tw ° 
story. "° kn0wled ^ e of each other. We give Luke's 

"And one of the Pharisees desired him that he would eat with 
him And he went into the Pharisee's house, and sat down to meat 

£S rf * T' " WOma " ^ the dty ' Which Was a si ™er, when he 
knew that Jesus sat at meat in the Pharisee's house brought an 
alabaster box of ointment, and she stood at his feet' behind him 
weeping and began to wash his feet with tears, and did wipe them 
will 2? oh T °? er M head ' a " d kis -d his feet and anoiZ h m 
Taw tZ I"'' N?w when the Pharisee which had bidden him 
nronl t *ut ™ ^ hlmSdf ^^ This man, if he were a 

l £?'JZ i h u- e k T Wn Wh ° and What manner of woman this 
is that toucheth him ; for she is a sinner. And Tesus answer hi 
said unto h,m, Simon, I have somewhat to say unto thee Tnd! 

tw 'dSs e -'th a e y o° n ' Th T fi Wa l a « rtai " -editor whii 11 ^ 

fifty And w £ .I"' TT d u V£ hUndr6d Pence ' and the other 

foavMhelhl T 11 n0t u mg WhereW, ' th t0 P a - V ' he frankly 
torgave them both. Tell me, therefore, which of them loved him 

Srgave moT AndTf "? "W S " PP ° Se that he to ^ 
torgave most. And he said unto him, Thou hast rightly judged. 



448 Women of the Bible 

And he turned to the woman, and said unto Simon, Seest thou 
this woman ? I entered into thine house, thou gavest me no water 
for my feet: but she hath washed my feet with tears, and wiped 
them with the hairs of her head. Thou gavest me no kiss: but 
this woman since the time I came in hath not ceased to kiss my 
feet. My head with oil thou didst not anoint: but this woman 
hath anointed my feet with ointment. Wherefore I say unto thee, 
Her sins, which are many, are forgiven ; for she loved much : but 
to whom little is forgiven, the same loveth little. And he said 
unto her, Thy sins are forgiven. And they that sat at meat with 
him began to say within themselves, Who is this that forgiveth 
sins also ? And he said to the woman, Thy faith hath saved thee; 
go in peace." 

Now, of the precise nature of her disease, we do not know. 
Some suppose it may have been chiefly physical in its origin, 
ending in epilepsy, or insanity, or both. If one has visited one 
of our modern insane asylums, and these are palaces in contrast 
with the rude hovel of an earlier day, he will see these people, 
no doubt, as Christ saw this woman, with glaring eyes, disheveled 
hair, sunken cheeks, injuring herself and others with whom she 
comes in contact. The mental machinery was unbalanced. There 
was no coherency in the thought, and the voice no doubt uttered 
indecent and blasphemous words. At times they are quiet and 
manageable, and at other times their natures are aroused and 
they seem to have the power of "ten furies." It is dreadful to 
thus see a human soul dethroned, the will a prisoner, and all this 
wonderful mental power at the mercy of a disordered physical 
system. 

Or it may have been this and worse than this. Her disordered 
physical condition may have opened the way for a possession 
which was not uncommon in those times, and which was a thou- 
sandfold worse than insanity. That there was such a possession 
of human bodies by wicked spirits, seems to us beyond doubt. 
"We are led to the ordinary and literal interpretation of these 
passages that there are evil spirits, subjects of the evil one, who, 
in the days of the Lord himself and his apostles especially, was 
permitted by God to exercise a direct influence over the souls and 
bodies of certain men. The distinguishing feature of possession 
is the complete or incomplete loss of the sufferer's reason, or of 




MARY MAGDALENE 



Mary Magdalene 449 

the loss of will ; his actions, his words, and almost his thoughts 
are mastered by the evil spirit, till his personality seems to be 
destroyed. . . It was but natural that the power of evil should 
show itself in more open and direct hostility than ever in the age 
of our Lord and his apostles when its time was short. It was 
natural also that it should take the special form of possession in 
an age of such unprecedented and brutal sensuality, as that which 
preceded his coming and continued till the leaven of Christianity 
was felt. Nor was it less natural that it should have died away 
gradually before the great direct, and still greater indirect, influ- 
ences of Christ's kingdom." 

In the country of the Gadarenes, immediately across the sea 
from where Mary Magdalene lived, we have an example of a 
man who was under the influence of a number of these spirits. 
"He had devils a long time and wore no clothes, neither abode in 
any house, but in the tombs; oftentimes he was kept bound with 
chains and in fetters, and he break the bands and was driven of 
the devil into the wilderness." When they were cast out by divine 
power, the man who thus had been led captive by them was found 
"sitting at the feet of Jesus, clothed and in his right mind." This 
woman may have been in some such condition as this, and may 
have roamed at large in the fields or tenanted by turns the caves 
in the mountains back of her native home. 

The time, place, and manner of her healing are not given us. 
The fact is simply stated by Luke (8:2) that she was one of 
those who, with others, went about with the Master, as he taught 
in the towns of the country, and ministered to him of her sub- 
stance. He may have found her on one of his journeys, as he 
found blind Bartimaeus at Jericho, and the maniac at Gadara ; or 
she may have come down to the shore, as he taught from one of 
the fishing boats along the edge of the Sea of Galilee. Maybe 
some of her friends who knew of his wonderful power, had 
caught lu* and brought her, struggling and screaming, into his 
presence. 'We can only picture to ourselves a woman with dis- 
heveled hair and garments, with wild eyes, disfigured face, out of 
which all lineaments of the human were well nigh faded, and 
upon which sat the unhappy expression of a demented and demon- 
possessed, standing one day in that beautiful vale, face to face 
with the Son of man." In him was all power. Even the spirits 



450 Women of the Bible 

were subject to him; he commands them to depart, and they go. 
They must go when they hear that voice, though there were ten 
thousand of them. 

What must have been the expression of her face when she was 
relieved of this dreadful burden which she had been carrying — 
when she first had a conscious knowledge of herself and her re- 
lations? Her first look must have been into that face, and her 
first thought must have been of her deliverer. When one turns 
away from a sinful life, experiences the conscious joy of pardoned 
guilt and a realization of divine acceptance, what a flood of 
delightful feelings rolls over the soul! Everything has become 
new ; the world about seems to have taken on a new beauty ; the 
stars shine with a clearer brightness ; the birds sing with a richer 
melody than even their voices were capable of before. Some 
such joy, perhaps more intense, must this woman have exper- 
ienced when there came a voice which relieved her of the demons 
that had possessed her. 

That voice she will always want to hear, and that presence 
she will have no desire to leave. The first notice we have of her 
is in company with Joanna, the wife of Herod's steward, Su- 
sanna, and others of the devoted women of those times. Her 
relations to her own home no doubt have been resumed, while a 
new life of activity has been opened up to her. The least she 
can do as a compensation for what has been done for her, is to 
unite with others in furnishing from her own resources sufficient 
for him who is going about blessing men and women everywhere. 
She deserts the fields, the caverns, and the tombs where, no doubt, 
she was wont to dwell, devoid of reason and led captive by the 
devil and his will, for the companionship of devoted women. She 
is no longer helpless and dependent upon others, but she is one 
of the world's workers, with a new purpose in life, and both able 
and willing to relieve the wants of those about her. 

Not only did Christ open up a new world to this woman, but 
by the influence of his truth he has made a new world for the 
sex. What Christianity has done for woman would be an in- 
tensely interesting chapter in the world's history. Take the record 
of almost any of the nations of the past, even the most cul- 
tured, before Christ's time, and the lot of woman was almost un- 
bearable. She was, in many cases, a beast of burden, with no 




THE ANGET, AT THE TOMB 



Mary Magdalene 451 

mental powers, with no soul, hence without a future. She had 
no will of her own, no aim in life save the gratification of man's 
baser passions. Her own life and that of her children in many 
cases at the mercy of her lord; in others hardly as well off as 
others about her. When Christianity came, it gave mankind a 
new conception of society, and of the value of a human being. 
It lifted him from the dominion of his brutal powers and took 
woman away from his domination. It put her on a level with 
himself, his sister, bone of his bone and flesh of his flesh, under 
the dominion of moral law, and accountable to the same God for 
the use of the powers which have been given. While it is done 
very much for man, it has created a new world for woman. 
The very glory and dignity which is placed upon her sex is an 
additional reason why every woman in civilized lands should be 
an ardent supporter of the truth which Christ came to exemplify. 
Xo woman who has ever compared the condition of her sex in 
heathen lands with what it is in Christian countries, will have 
any desire to return to the former condition. 

She, with other women, followed Him on his last journey to 
Jerusalem and ministered to him. It is very probable that 'she 
was present with others at. his mock trial, where she saw one 
dearer to her than her own life ill-treated by Caiaphas, by Herod, 
and by Pilate, who knew he was innocent. She heard these high 
priests and whitened Pharisees urge on that howling mob clam- 
oring for the Son of man. She stood on Calvary's mount, saw 
him nailed to the cross, and that dropped into the ground. ' She, 
with others, stood and looked while the Roman soldier thrust the 
spear into his side to see if he were yet dead. The temple had 
been rent, the sun had veiled his face, dead men had left their 
graves and come forth, but she did not desert her Master and her 
friend. While his enemies are putting him to death, he shall 
know he is still dying, as every man wants to die, in the presence 
of his dearest friends. • 

Xo doubt those women are anxious that the Master's body 
shall have respectful burial, but where shall it be placed, and how 
shall it be done? Their faithful, persistent watching would seem 
to show such anxiety. While patiently waiting, Joseph of Arima- 
thea and Xicodemus, who are known as secret disciples, appear. 
If they fail to properly honor him in life, they will at least see 



452 Women of the Bible 

that he has an honorable burial. These men come with authority 
to take charge of the body. Rubens represents the women as help- 
ing to take the body from the cross. Servants have also come 
with Joseph, bearing the spices and gums which are used for 
the preservation of the body. It was not properly an embalming, 
for there was not time for that, because of the near approach of 
the Sabbath. "In his own new tomb' which he had hewn out in 
the rock," they laid Jesus. The remains were borne in the arms 
of the rich men with their servants, followed by at least two wo- 
men disciples, Mary Clopas and Mary Magdalene. The stone 
was rolled against the door of the tomb, but the two women did 
not hasten away. For some time after they were found "sitting 
over against the sepulchre," loath to leave the spot made sacred 
by his presence. The shadows of evening fall and they hasten 
into the city to buy, before the Sabbath shall come, the spices that 
will be needed to complete the honor which they propose to pay 
the body of the Lord. 

Just how and where they spent that Passover Sabbath, has 

not been revealed to us, but we feel sure those bereft followers 

were near enough together to readily communicate with each 

other. "When the sabbath was past, Mary Magdalene, and Mary 

the mother of James, and Salome had bought sweet spices, that 

they might come and anoint him." She who was last at the cross, 

is one of the earliest at the grave, and the first witness of the 

resurrection. This is a very important event in the up-building 

of the Christian system, and very great honor was put upon this 

woman. When she arrived she found the stone rolled away and 

the tomb empty. It seems that Mary fled to where Peter and the 

others were gathered, and said, "They have taken away the Lord 

out of the sepulchre, and we know not where they have laid 

him." After a time she returns to the garden, and stands by the 

empty sepulcher, weeping. There is no place dearer to her than 

this spot, and if she tarries here she may in some manner learn 

what has become of his body. By some accident, perhaps, she 

looks into the vault, and to her surprise, sees two "angels in white 

sitting, the one at the head, and the other at the feet where the 

body of Jesus had lain." 

These angels, in tones of sympathy and comfort say to her, 
"Why weepest thou?" She is so occupied with her loss that she 



Mary Magdalene 453 

may not be conscious that they are angels. It is a comfort to know 
where your dead friends are sleeping, but she had no such pleasure 
as this. She answers, ''They have taken away my Lord, and I 
know not where they have laid him." She hears footsteps,' and as 
she turns about she hopes to learn something of his absent body. 
Jesus himself stood beside her, but she did not recognize him. 
"Did her tears blur her vision? Was the body of her Lord so 
changed by the passion, the cross, and the sepulcher? Were her 
eyes holden as in the case of the disciples on the way to Emmaus? 
Perhaps, more naturally, we may suppose that in the intensity of 
her one absorbing emotion, she but glanced upon the stranger's 
face, and uttered her hurried question with little more than the 
outline of his form impressed upon her mind. The sudden transi- 
tion from the dim light of the vault, into which she had been 
looking, to the full light of the morning that fell in her eyes as 
she turned, would certainly contribute to, if it might not wholly 
account, for her failure to recognize Jesus. This natural effect 
would be intensified by that weakness of the organs of sight which 
always results from excessive weeping." 

It was natural to conclude that no one but the gardener would 
be about so early in the morning, and he no doubt for some good 
reason may have removed the body. In the agony of a bleeding 
heart she beseeches him, "If thou have borne him hence, tell me 
where thou hast laid him, and I will take him away." That body 
may not mean much to him, but it represents everything to her. 
As she speaks, she hears the word "Mary." It must have come 
to her in the familiar and well-known tones of earlier years. A 
glance at that face and the recognition is complete. Her once sad 
but now joyful heart says, "Rabboni— my Master." In transports 
of joy she no doubt threw herself at his feet, intending to embrace 
him, as her companions had done but a little time before, but he 
forbade her. Why was this ? 

"May we not, at the outset, suppose that there was a tender 
and wise regard for Mary's physical welfare ? The terrible malady 
from which she had been healed was the evidence of a naturally 
excitable temperament, a condition of nerves highly susceptible to 
agitations. Her cure, thorough as it was, we may be permitted to 
think still left her peculiarly open to the disturbing influence of 
unusual excitements. We can therefore understand why the 



454 = Women of the Bible 

Master should have laid a check upon her passionate devotion by 
his 'Touch me not.' How he should have recalled her to her right 
mind, tempered her excitement by forbidding her the act which 
might feed it, and turned her thoughts quickly into a channel of 
healthy activity by sending her instantly forth with the message, 
'Go to my brethren, and say unto them, I ascend to my Father, 
and your Father ; and to my God, and your God.' 

She hastens to tell the disciples "that she had seen the Lord." 
A woman becomes the first preacher of the resurrection. This 
was the important duty of that hour and the highest service she 
could render. Wherever this gospel has gone, even down to the 
present, she has been preaching the same truth. In Christian or 
heathen lands, wherever a church has been organized, her sisters 
have been and are to-day proclaiming the same glorious truth of a 
risen Lord, and so it shall be to the end of time. The message is 
one of salvation to a lost and ruined Avorld. Every Christian Sab- 
bath is a monument to the fact which she proclaimed to these dis- 
heartened disciples. There is little wisdom in inquiring, "Shall 
women preach?" when the Head of the church himself sent a 
woman out to preach the resurrection before the sluggish male 
disciples had yet had apprehension of the fact. 

"In this gracious service, Mary of Magdala drops away from 
the sacred record. Our last view of her shows her in the midst 
of the disciples, as they mourned and wept, answering to the in- 
credulous company the fact of the Lord's Easter. It is a happy 
closing of her life's history. She comes before us, burdened with 
that calamity which despoiled all that is sweetest in life, and 
which fell from her forever at the voice of the Son of God. She 
passes from us in the midst of mourning and weeping men, bear- 
ing to them the news of that sublime fact— the resurrection of 
the Christ— which has transformed sorrowing and sin-burdened 
mortals into children of God, joyful with the hope of a heavenly 
immortality," 



fflaxy -WBiit of Clopag 



"Though we admire the beautiful Rachel, or the heroic Deborah, or the 
virtuous "Abigail, or the affectionate Ruth, or the fortunate Esther, or the 
brave Judith,' or the generous Shunammite, we do not find in the Rachels 
and Esthers the hallowed ministrations of the Marys, the Marthas, and 
the Phcebes, until Christianity had developed the virtues of the heart and 
kindled the loftier sentiments of the soul. Then woman became not merely 
the gentle nurse, and the prudent housewife, and the disinterested lover, 
but a friend, an angel of consolation, the equal of man in character, and 
his superior 'in the virtues of the heart and soul. It was not till then that 
she was seen to have those qualities which extort veneration and call out 
the deepest sympathy wherever life is divested of its demoralizing egotisms. 
The original* beatitudes of the Garden of Eden returned and man awoke 
from the deep sleep of four thousand years to discover, with Adam, that 
woman was a partner for whom he should resign all other attachments of 
life • and she became his star of worship and his guardian angel amid the 
entanglements of sin and cares of toil." —Dr. John Lord. 



iHarp— Wife of Clopa£ 



WE know little of this Mary except as she comes into view 
during the last week of Christ's life. She is supposed to 
be a sister of Alary, the mother of Jesus. It is probable 
there was a distinction between the original names, that of our 
Lord's mother being Miriam and of this one Maria; such a differ- 
ence as would appear in "Miriam" and "Mary" with us. She 
was the "mother of James the less and Joses" (Matthew 27: 56), 
and had two other sons, Simon and Jude, and also some daughters 
who dwelt at Nazareth. It has been supposed that Mary Clopas 
was the eldest of her family and that her children were older than 
our Lord. They are spoken of as "brothers" of our Lord, hence 
in their native town of Nazareth they must have been looked upon 
substantially as one family. 

When Qirist began his ministry she was probably somewhat 
advanced in years, and her age and experience had no doubt ma- 
tured her judgment. She seems to have been an earnest believer 
in the Messianic character of our Lord. Two of her sons, James 
the less, afterwards called "the Just," and Jude, were numbered 
in that little band of the apostles. So to be with them as well as 
to aid in the prosecution of their work, she, with other women, 
followed Christ in his preaching tours and helped to supply his 
physical wants. While that is true, some of her sons who are 
somewhere called the Lord's "brethren," did not accept him. It 
was then, as it is now, and no doubt will be to the end of time. 
Even in the same family some will hear and obey, while others 
will hear and reject. It is to be hoped that these saw the error 
of their ways, when the Master ascended and finally became pre- 
pared for the home above. We may be sure this faithful woman 
not only ministered to the wants of this rabbi as best she could, 
but that by example and by precept she would seek to lead these 
opposing children out of the rigid and austere forms of Pharisee- 
ism, into the light and liberty of the new gospel. 



458 Women of the Bible 

This woman comes more vividly before us in the last week 
of Christ's life. It is Friday morning, a busy day in Jerusalem, 
and a very important day in the history of the world's salvation. 
It is passover time and the streets of Jerusalem are thronged 
with people from all parts of the land. The rabbi, who has been 
preaching a new gospel, who claims to be the long-looked-for 
Messiah, has been condemned to death by a false trial, which has 
been the shame of the ages. The Roman governor, who pro- 
nounces him' an innocent man, and who should have used his 
police to protect him, in violation of all Roman justice, turns 
him over to the tender mercies of a cruel mob. They start 
toward the place of death, with the victims carrying their own 
crosses, as was the custom of these Roman times. In that crowd 
of people who pushed along these narrow streets, spreading over 
space, laughing and jeering as though on some merry-making 
tour, was John, the beloved disciple, and some Christian women. 
These were there to show their sympathy with and their devotion 
to this Master, .and they pressed as closely to him as the Roman 
officials would allow. John, who was present with them, tells us 
in his own account of the affair, "Now there stood by the cross 
of Jesus his mother, and his mother's sister, Mary the wife of 
Cleophas, and Mary Magdalene." From other sources we learn 
that Salome was also there. They intended to be faithful to 

the end. 

Mary, with others, saw the whole proceedings in connection 
with that dreadful tragedy, at the commission of which the temple 
rocked, the graves opened, and the sun refused to shine. Her 
eyes were sore with weeping as she gazed upon the bloody scene, 
and her agonizing heart was about broken with anguish. She 
saw the wearied Christ faint tfeneath his load ; the man of Cyrene 
carried it and threw it down at the appointed place. The person 
who was to end his life thereon, stood patiently by. The strange 
sign was there with its mixed languages, which would tell the 
passerby that "This is the King of the Jews." She saw the spikes 
driven into his quivering hands and feet, the cross is lifted and 
dropped into the socket, where it shall stand until life has ebbed 
away. When the officials have completed this, they will wait and 
nature will do the rest. 



Mary — Wife of Clopas 459 

She, with these other women, stand at first by the cross, but 
later on they seem to have been 'pushed back. They may have 
gone of their own accord, because of the intensity of their grief ; 
or it may have been necessary that the spectators should be 
farther removed, in order to keep in check this insolent mob, but 
they could still see it all. "The cruel mocking of the chief priests, 
scribes, and elders, the deriding of the rulers; the railing, the 
reviling, the wagging of the heads by the people ; the mockery of 
the soldiers ; the railing of the impenitent thief; the tender plea of 
the penitent one; the commission which consigned her sister to 
the care of John, and gave her thus a surer home than her own 
advancing years could promise— all these Mary must have heard 
and seen." 

That must have been a dreadful day. It is yet only midday, 
and yet the heavens are darkened. How slowly to her, as well 
as to that innocent sufferer, do the hours roll away. It is time 
for the evening sacrifice, and the lamb has been slain. No need 
of any more temple or Jewish sacrifice. The Lamb slain from the 
foundation of the world, hangs now on the accursed tree. These 
faithful friends have stood by him to the end. They may have 
cheered him as best they could by their social converse, but if 
so, the Holy Spirit has recorded none of their words. But the 
falling tears, the suppressed sob, the interested face, their very 
presence on such an occasion, with such disagreeable surround- 
ings reveal to him and to the world that he was not without 
friends. He did not die alone or unattended. They did all that 
they could do; they encouraged him by their presence and 
watched with him until his life went out. 

Whittier, in his poem entitled "The Angels of Buena Vista," 
shows how we long for woman's tenderness and sympathy when 
we come to the end of life. The Mexican wife, Ximenia, goes 
from her dead husband's side out among the wounded and dying 
on the battlefield. 

"Close beside her, faintly moaning, fair and young, a soldier lay, 
Torn with shot and pierced with lances, bleeding slow his life away; 
But, as tenderly before him the lorn Ximenia knelt. 
She saw the Northern eagle shining on his pistol belt; 
With a stifled cry of horror straight she turned her head, 
Wirh a sad and bitter feeling looked she back upon her dead. 
But she heard the youth's low moaning, and his struggling breath of pain, 
And she raised the cooling water to his parched lips again. 



460 Women of the Bible 

"Whispered low the dying soldier— pressed her hand and faintly smiled. 
Was that pitying face his mother's? Did she watch beside her child? 
All his stranger words with meaning the woman's heart supplied ; 
With her kiss upon his forehead, 'Mother,' murmured he, and died. 
'A bitter curse upon them, poor boy, who led thee forth, ? 

From some gentle, sad-eyed mother, weeping lonely in the North; 
Spake the mournful Mexican woman, as she laid him with her dead, 
And turned to sooth the living, and bind the wounds which bled." 

The end has come, at least the apparent end of the Re- 
former's work. If the painter is correct in his interpretation, 
she, with other women, helped to lower the body of Jesus so^ it 
could be prepared for burial. Two male disciples came with 
authority, and he is placed in Joseph's tomb. They could only 
partially embalm him, for the time was short before the Sabbath 
would begin. The tomb in which he had been placed had never 
been occupied by any other. No doubt a great burden was lifted 
from their hearts, to find that Joseph had a place for the body. 
In their minds his was only a temporary resting place, but it 
fulfilled a prophecy concerning the Messiah, that he should be 
"with the rich in his death." The stone was rolled to the en- 
trance and this Mary and Mary of Magdala sat there against the 
sepulcher until the shades of the coming night admonished them 
to hasten home. It had been a heart-breaking day for them, and 
no doubt tired and weary in body and mind, their thoughts con- 
fused and their expectations frustrated, like two sisters they sat 
and consoled each other while into each other's ears they breathed 
out the disappointments of their heart. 

On their way back into the city they procured spices and oint- 
ments with which, after the Sabbath had passed, they intended to 
complete the embalming of that dear body, and keep it from cor- 
ruption as long as possible. Darkness came down upon the city. 
The Jews had killed their Messiah. He sleeps quietly in the new 
tomb prepared for another. Little did the people know the mean- 
ing of that fearful imprecation, "His blood be on us and our 
children." How little do any of us know the consequences of a 
single sin. How thoroughly the chief priests and scribes had led 
away the people. It will be only a few short years until that 
curse will bring its punishment ; that proud city shall be leveled 
with the dust; that magnificent temple shall be destroyed, and 






Mary— Wife of Clopas 461 

that far-famed nation be scattered to the four winds, a hissing 
and a by- word among the nations of the earth. 

That little band of disheartened, disappointed men and wo- 
men must have been near to and consoled each other on that Sab- 
bath day. They talked over their hopes and fears, their expecta- 
tions and their sad disappointment. They did not dream of 
such an ending. They were sure he was the man who should 
redeem Israel, but the rulers have put him to death as a malefac- 
tor. How often rulers have repeated that act since that time, 
released Barabbas, and crucified the Christ ! We did that in these 
United States when we held the poor black man in cruel bondage, 
that he might add to the wealth of those who owned him. We 
are doing it in this same land to-day where bribery, oppression, 
monopoly, and misrule are allowed to have sway, while the cause 
of the poor, the unfortunate, the neglected, and the lowly is 
trampled in the dust. 

These women must have slept, for their bodies had been 
wearied with the watchings of the day, but love counts no labors 
severe, no burdens heavy, which are carried in the interest of 
those we hold dear. They had prepared to go and complete their 
embalming. Mary Magdalene came "early while it was yet dark." 
Alary Clopas and those with her, "at the rising of the sun." 
These periods were very near to each other. The hour shows the 
anxiety of the women to be there promptly, and complete their 
work. The gates are open probably by an earthquake, and they 
pass out. The men are not with them, and they wonder how 
they shall be able to roll away the stone. Until that is done, they 
cannot enter the chamber cut in the rock, where the body of' their 
Lord is resting. As they reach the sepulcher, the sun comes up 
oyer the eastern hills, and hill and valley are soon ablaze with 
his glory. 

i When they reached the hallowed spot, strange to say, the stone 
is already rolled away. How often have we had the same joyful 
experience when we have gone forward in the path of duty 
doors have opened to us, difficulties have vanished, and the lions 
have disappeared from the way. When Mary Magdalene first 
saw the opening, in the impetuosity of her nature, she ran to tell 
Peter and the other disciples that the Lord's body had disap- 
peared, with the hope, perhaps, that they could help bring it 



462 Women of the Bible 

back. Mary Clopas and Salome seem to have entered farther in, 
so they could see the interior and they beheld a young man and 
were "affrighted." Perhaps any of us, at least most of us, 
would have been so under the same circumstances, and yet why 
should the appearance of angelic visitors make us afraid? Is 
there in this a confession of our own sinfulness, and a dread 
that their coming means punishment? The young man whom 
they saw, said to them, "Be not affrighted: Ye seek Jesus of 
Nazareth, which was crucified : he is risen ; he is not here : behold 
the place where they laid him. But go your way, tell his dis- 
ciples and Peter that he goeth before you into Galilee : there shall 
ye see him, as he said unto you." 

They did not hesitate, but went at once. Matthew tells us, 
'They departed quickly from the sepulchre with fear and great 
joy, and did run to bring his disciples word." The fear was the 
result of what they had just seen; the joy, of the blissful message 
which was given them. The commingled feelings which they 
expressed are not new in human experience. How their busy 
minds must have been thrilled with the hope that their Master 
was again alive, and that they might see him once more; with 
the reception which his disheartened disciples would give the 
message which they carried, and with the uncertainty how all this 
would affect their own nation, which had cruelly put him to death. 
The feeling of "joy" seems to predominate, for this is the story 
which their hearts wanted to believe. Mark tells us, "They 
trembled and were amazed." They were in a kind of joyful 
ecstasy. So intent were they on their own thoughts and their 
present mission, that they neither conversed with each other nor 
delayed to speak to any one whom they met. They may have 
thought it was not yet safe to say anything lest they might en- 
danger their interests with the public officials. While these de- 
voted women were thus hastening to announce the gospel of the 
resurrection to the disciples, the soldiers were on their way to 
report to the Pharisees the infamous falsehood which they had 
concocted to tell (Matthew 28: 11). The one was about to pub- 
lish their story for the world's redemption; the other to conceal 
and counteract it. Satan is as quick to silence the gospel as the 
disciples are to proclaim it, 




tn 

w 

H 
W 
Eh 



Mary— Wife of Clopas 463 

Those who "run" in the path of duty, shall happen upon rich 
rewards. As they were hurrying forward with their joyful mes- 
sage, a well-known form stands before them. It was the risen 
Lord. The angel had been sent to the tomb to make an announce- 
ment to them, and now the Master himself comes to greet them. 
The great honor is thus bestowed upon them of being the first to 
see the risen Lord. He addressed them in the common form of sal- 
utation, "All hail," joy to you all. It was joy to them at this crucial 
period, and has been a joy to all womankind ever since. How 
much they needed such a message of inspiration after the sor- 
rows they had passed through. God always reveals himself to 
those who look for him and love him. He" has appeared to wo- 
men everywhere in all ages where his gospel has been preached, 
and said to them, "Joy to you all." His gospel has brought a 
benediction to the sex and wherever his teachings have pre- 
vailed, woman has seen a light and life and joy and inspiration 
which she has found nowhere else. "They came and held him by 
his feet and worshipped him." They had started with mixed 
feelings of fear and joy, but his presence drives away their fear 
and increases their joy. "Go, tell my brethren." What precious 
words to those poor, sorrow-stricken disciples who have been 
crushed in heart and life by his sad death ! And so are we all 
his "brethren" to-day, who follow in his footsteps, who keep his 
commandments and who look for his coming. 

It was women who first bore the glad tidings of the resur- 
rection, and women's feet are still running the world over and 
carrying everywhere the same glad news. "All expositors have 
noticed the extraordinary honor conferred upon woman through- 
out all these scenes. To her came the first announcement of the 
resurrection ; to her the first sight of the risen Lord ; she it was 
whom the angels sent to herald this fact to the apostles them- 
selves ; to her came the Savior's commissions that summoned the 
disciples to that tryst among the hills of Galilee, where the sight 
of his glorified presence could be vouchsafed to them. Who so 
well fitted to carry the joyful news to those upon whom the hor- 
rorof a great darkness had fallen, as the very persons who, with 
their own eyes, had seen the Lord, and who had been made to 
rejoice by his presence? And who so fitted to carry the same 
glad tidings to a ruined world to-day as those for whom he has 



464 Women of the Bible 

done so much? We still find women foremost in all religious 
work. Wherever men and women are in sorrow and distress; 
wherever afflictions have come with a heavy hand, and poverty 
and wretchedness have shown their wan faces ; in the cell of the 
criminal, or in the abode of the strange woman; in the home of 
want, on the bleak frontier, or in the dense city, at home or 
abroad, in pulpit or in pew, in the prayer-meeting or in the Sun- 
day school, where men and women need to be told of a Christ 
who came to save men, there do we find the Marys of to-day, a 
fitting example of those who were Christ's friends when here on 
earth; strong in faith, 'hope, and courage, willing to do or to 
suffer, that a knowledge of the teachings of the Lord may be 
spread abroad and men be made to rejoice in hope of ever- 
lasting life. 



jHarj>===tf)e ifflotfjer of M^vk 



"Not long since, in a great city, an aged Christian woman closed her 
earthly life. She had lived always in very plain circumstances. She had 
enjoyed only the most ordinary privileges of education. She had no 
peculiar gift for or distinct form of Christian activity. She had not 
taught a Sunday-school class, nor led a woman's prayer meeting or taken 
any part in a missionary society, nor been connected with a temperance 
union or any other sort of organized association. She had never been 
recognized by her friends as an active worker in any capacity. But for 
sixty of her "eighty years she had been a true, earnest, and sincere Chris- 
tian. She had been a faithful wife, and a loving, self-denying mother. She 
had brought up her family in the fear of the Lord. She had lived a 
quiet, patient, gentle life. Her life story was a record, not of any great 
deeds, nor of any fine things done, but of eighty years of plain, simple, 
lowly. Christ-like" goodness. Yet it never can be known till the judgment 
day when the books shall be opened, what blessings that humble life brought 
to "the race of man. Its silent, unconscious influence poured out through 
all the long years into other lives, making them better, happier, holier, 
sweeter." —Dr. J. R. Miller. 



jfflarp— tfje jfllotijer of jWarfe 



PAUL, in his letter to the church at Colosse, commends to 
their kind notice, "Marcus, sister's son to Barnabas," from 
which tender memory we learn that this Mary was the sister 
of Barnabas. He was born on the island Cyprus, and while we 
have no expressed statement concerning the sister, it is not im- 
probable that she also was born there. 

Cyprus is about one hundred and fifty miles in length, and 
from five to fifty in breadth. The interior is mountainous, a ridge 
being drawn across its entire length. It was long the boast of 
this people that they could build and complete their vessels with- 
out any aid from foreign countries. Among the mineral products 
were diamonds, emeralds, and other precious stones, alum and 
asbestos; besides these were lead, iron, zinc, with a portion of 
silver, and above all, copper. It was famed among the ancients 
for its beauty and fertility, and all modern travelers agree that in 
the hands of an industrious race, it would be one of the most 
productive countries in the world. Imperfectly as it is cultivated, 
it still abounds in every production of nature, and bears great 
quantities of corn, figs, olives, oranges, lemons, dates, and indeed 
every fruit seen in these climates. It nourishes great numbers of 
goats, sheep, pigs, and oxen, of the latter of which it has at times 
exported supplies to Malta. The most valuable product at present 
is cotton. The writer had a view of the island in 1881, while the 
vessel on which he was riding tarried for a time at Limasol, to 
unload some passengers, goods, and cattle. 

Salamis was the capital, and it was from this point that Paul 
entered on his missionary journey. Jews were located here before 
the time of Alexandria, and they became quite numerous on the 
island. They may have been drawn hither in part by the copper 
mines which were at one time farmed out to Herod the Great. 
The early persecutions may have driven the Jews who were Chris- 
tians into this place, and they thus became a very important help 
in the growth of the church. Salamis, at present, is mostly cov- 
ered with the sand drifted in from the beach by the ocean waves. 
We are told that Barnabas was a Levite, hence his father must 



468 Women of the Bible 

have belonged to the priestly class. We do not know the father's 
name, but if true to the teachings and practices of his people, his 
children were faithfully trained in a knowledge of the Jewish law. 
In the case of Barnabas this proved very effective, "for he was 
a good man, and full of the Holy Ghost and of faith.' It was the 
duty of the priestly class to keep before the minds of the people 
the coming of Him who was to save the nation. The whole Jew- 
ish ritual pointed to this. Every time these officials looked upon 
a smoking altar they were reminded of the coming Messiah. The 
forty-eight cities into which the Levites were distributed, became 
so many university centers, where they studied the law together, 
and from thence were sent out into several sections to teach the 
people. The careful instructing of his own family was the duty 
of every good Jew, and especially of a Levite. "And these words 
which I command thee this day, shall be in thine heart : and thou 
shalt teach them diligently unto thy children, and shalt talk of 
them when thou sittest in thine house, and when thou walkest by 
the way, . . . and they shall be as frontlets between thine 
eyes, and thou shalt write them upon the posts of thy house, and 
on thy gates." There is hardly any doubt but that Mary was 
trained in the faith and hope of the Jewish people. 

Among these Levites, at one time were about four thousand 
musicians, whose work 'it was to furnish music for the temple 
service. They were divided into twenty-four choirs, each headed 
by a chief. (I. Chronicles 25.) In order that these might be 
able to take their part in the great choral hymns of the temple, 
special study and preparation would be necessary. We are told 
in the Mishna that, "As for those Avho are singers, they were 
summoned by the blast of the trumpet from all parts of the spa- 
cious temple. They sung psalms, accompanied by their musical 
instruments, while the priests were pouring on the altar the liba- 
tion of wine." The word Nabi, which we usually translate 
"prophet," came to have a fourfold meaning because of the vari- 
ous offices which they performed. They were to be "teachers," 
"public orators," "poets," and "composers of music," and a course 
of study in these schools was arranged accordingly. Among the 
men trained in the schools of prophets were Levites. 

"In the days of David we read of Heman, Asaph, and Je- 
duthun as chief among the chiefs of musicians, numbering two 



Mary— the Mother of Mark 469 

hundred and eighty-eight, in twenty-four sections of twelve each, 
and under them four thousand to praise Jehovah with instru- 
ments. What grand choruses there must have been when with 
sackbut, psaltery, harp, and all manner of brazen instruments, 
the army of Levites moved along the streets of Jerusalem, shaking 
the very walls with their melody and the voice of their inspired 
hymnal. It was with such a scene in mind that St John in 
Patmos could enter into the spirit of that vision of the worship 
of the great company before the throne, harping with their harps 
and sending up to God the song of Moses and the Lamb like the 
voice of many waters." 

_ When we do hear of the Levites in the New Testament it is 
chiefly as a type of a heathen, formal worship. But if "a great 
company of priests were obedient to the faith," may not their 
influence have led many of the Levites who were associated with 
them to follow their example ? The conversion of Barnabas and 
Mark were not the only instances of men who received the new 
taitn, as it really was, for a fulfillment of the old. And so far 
as the chants and songs which they learned in connection with 
the temple near by could be adapted to the services of the syn- 
agogue, would they not also transfer these to other Christian 
gatherings and make them a part of their religious services and 
worship? May not Mary, who was accustomed to hear these 
instruments played and these songs chanted, have herself become 
skillful in instrumental music and song?" When she, with her 
brother entered into a new faith and received Jesus as indeed the 
Messiah for whom they had long been looking, may not she have 
carried into her own home these accomplishments learned in her 
father s home, and thus made that home a place of social gather- 
ing and religious worship for these scattered disciples? 

Pliny, m his letter to Trajan, the emperor, A. D. Ill says 
he interrogated the Christians who had been arrested, as to their 
actions, but they affirmed that this was the sum of their fault 
and error, that they were accustomed on a stated day, to meet 
together before day to sing a hymn to Christ in concert as to a 
Cod, and to bind themselves by a solemn oath not to commit any 
wickedness. _ Very early we see indications of the simple form's 
of worship m the synagogues having been carried over into the 
Christian church. In addition to reading from the Old Testa- 



470 Women of the Bible 

merit and listening to remarks from any who wanted to speak, 
a letter was often read from one of the apostles. There were 
prayers which soon followed prescribed forms, with repetitions 
of the Lord's prayer and the singing of Psalms. Paul and Silas, 
it is recorded, sang praises unto God in the jail at Philippi. In 
the Epistles we have reference made to the use of "psalms and 
hymns and spiritual songs." It is thought that in addition to the 
Psalms, Christian hymns began to appear in worship as early 
as the time of St. Paul ; that fragments of these hymns have been 
found in his Epistles, as for example, 

"Awake, thou that sleepest, 
Arise from the dead, 
And Christ shall give thee light." 

"He who was manifested in the flesh, 
Justified in the spirit, 
Seen of angels, 
Preached among the nations, 
Believed on in the world, 
Received up into glory." 

May not some of these psalms and hymns have been heard in 
Mary's house, at Jerusalem, and may she not have partly helped, 
by her service of song, as other women have helped, to comfort 
the hearts of discouraged disciples ; to open up visions of a bet- 
ter life ; to place before them holier ideals ; to strengthen their 
hands for a determined warfare against evil and in favor of that 
which is good? Then, as now, no doubt, men's hearts were in- 
spired by holy song. To have put a sacred song into the hearts 
of the people, which shall accompany them in all their journeys ; 
which shall be on their lips when in a workshop as well as in 
church ; which shall soothe their children to rest as well as quiet 
their own fears ; which shall restrain unholy ambitions and help 
one to bear and to battle with the ills of life — is to have made 
one's self immortal on earth and to have laid up treasure in 
heaven. May the gift of song and the sweet influence of music 
never be used other than as the Giver intended, to create within 
us high and holy aspirations. 

At the period when Mary is introduced to us, which is about 
eleven years after the death of Christ, we find her residing in 
Jerusalem. She is most likely a widow, and seems to have been 




< 



W 
W 

a 

14 



Q 

« 



Mary—the Mother of Mark 471 

for some time a follower of the Master, well-known, and highly 
esteemed by all. What motives led to the change of her home 
from Cyprus to Jerusalem, we do not know. Her father may 
have preferred to locate in the holy city where his Levitical duties 
called him, and where his children would be more immediately 
under the influences of Judaism. Or the daughter may have been 
married and found a new home here, just as new homes are being 
found all over our land to-day. She seems to have been a wo- 
man of considerable means and of good social standing. When 
Peter was miraculously delivered from prison, "he came to the 
house of Alary the mother of John whose surname was Mark " 
It has been surmised that when her brother Barnabas gave up his 
land and brought the proceeds and turned them into the common 
treasury of the church, that the sister also gave up her house to 
be used as a regular meeting place for the disciples. A further 
confirmation of this is found in the fact that when Peter was 
released, his first thought was of this house, and when he reached 
the place he found a band of disciples gathered here praying for 
him. The traditions of a later age report the meeting place of the 
disciples, which was probably the home of Mary, as having stood 
on the upper slope of Zion, and affirmed that it had been the 
scenes of the wonders of the day of Pentecost, that it had es- 
caped the destruction of the city by Titus and was used as a 
church in the fourth century. It has been suggested also that 
she owned a country seat on the slope of Olivet, and which might 
have included Gethsemane itself. This grows out of the statement 
made by Mark himself in his Gospel, where he says that on the 
mght of our Lord's betrayal, "There followed him a certain 
young man, having a linen cloth cast about his naked body ■ and 
the young men laid hold on him ; and he left the linen cloth' and 
fled from them naked." (Mark 14: 51, 52.) The circumstances 
are minutely given, but no names mentioned. The most probable 
interpretation is that Mark suppressed his own name while tellino- 
a story which he understood best of all. The probability is thai 
either just on the eve of retiring, or having been suddenly awak- 
ened out of his sleep, he comes out to see the seizure of the be- 
trayed Master, already known to him, and in some degree believed 
upon He is so deeply interested that he follows him even in 
Ins thm linen robe. Plis conduct is such that some of the crowd 



472 Women of the Bible 

are about to capture him; then "fear overcoming shame," he 
leaves his garment in their hand and flees. 

The incidents recorded in the twelfth chapter of the Acts of 
the Apostles, first bring us face to face with this devoted woman 
and her Christian home. About the year A. D. 44, Herod 
Agrippa L, having had his territory enlarged, wished to con- 
ciliate and win to him the support of the Jewish people, and there 
was no better way to do that than to persecute this new sect, 
which was hated by the Jewish party rulers ; hence "he put forth 
his hands to afflict certain of the church." Then he first killed 
James the brother of John, the son of Zebedee, and one of the 
three favored disciples. He was very prominent in the counsels 
of the church at Jerusalem, and was probably for this reason 
chosen as the first victim. If the king could once get rid of these 
active leaders of the church, no doubt the organization would 
soon go to pieces. He is the first of the twelve to drink the cup 
which Christ drank, and a single line tells the whole story of his 
brutal murder. It matters little how long we live, but much how 
well we live. 

When the king saw that this pleased the Jews, whose favor 
he was seeking, he arrested Peter also. James was put to death 
just before the feast of the Passover, some eleven years after the 
crucifixion of Jesus. The more rigid Jews deemed it unlawful 
to defile their solemn feasts with executions, so Peter is put into 
prison to await the close of the Passover, when he would be 
brought forth, possibly for trial, at least for execution. Once 
before he had been placed in prison, but escaped. That he might 
not again escape their hands, a guard of sixteen men was placed 
over him, who, by turns, relieved each other of the care of their 
prisoner. It was the usual custom to chain the prisoner to one 
soldier so he could not get away, but as an extra precaution in his 
case, and to make assurance doubly sure, he was chained to two. 

To all human appearances, this was a dark hour for the 
church. Herod has written it down that to-morrow Peter dies. 
Not because of any wrongdoing on his part, but to secure the 
favor of wicked Jewish officials. Peter is quietly sleeping between 
his two guards and chained to each. He is not worried about 
to-morrow, for the same Lord who cared for him to-day will care 
for him to-morrow. The doors of the prison are also guarded 



Mary— the Mother of Mark 473 

and the outer iron gate locked. This prisoner shall not get away. 
While this is the dark condition of affairs in the prison, under 
the very shadow of the temple, there is a different situation at 
Mary's house. It was late at night, if not indeed near three 
o'clock in the morning. "Many were gathered together, and were 
praying." These nightly gatherings were continued in later years, 
in part because of the solemnity which belongs to the hours of the 
night, and partly to a deeply-rooted impression that the Lord 
would come again in the night. Hunted, persecuted, tormented, 
with the governmental authorities arrayed against them, they have 
no other help than the one of prayer. "Prayer was made earnestly 
unto God for him." But the "power of fervent and importunate 
prayer is greater than the power of a king and his soldiers. It 
moves the hand that moves the world. God is stronger than man. 
The weapons of the spiritual man are not carnal, but they are 
mighty." Says Wordsworth, "Herod's soldiers were watching 
under arms at the door of the prison ; Christ's soldiers were watch- 
ing unto prayer in the house of Mary ; Christ's soldiers are more 
powerful with their arms than Herod's soldiers with theirs. They 
unlock the prison doors and bring Peter to the house of Mary." 
It is night and darkness prevails in the prison, in the streets 
of the city, in the hearts of the disciples — everywhere. Sud- 
denly a light "shined into his celT like that which flashed upon 
the shepherds of Bethlehem. An angel of the Lord appeared 
and smote Peter, so as to rouse him out of his slumber. The 
wearied apostle, dreaming of the glorious witness to his Lord, 
which he was to experience when the day dawned, may have mis- 
taken the angel's voice for that of the guide sent to summon him 
to execution. 

"His dream is changed — the tyrant's voice 
Calls to that last of glorious deeds; 
But as he rises to rejoice, 

Not Herod, but the angel leads." 

As he arose, the iron fetters which had bound him to the 
sleeping soldiers, had already snapped. There is no need of haste 
for he is in the hands of a Greater than Herod. He must tighten 
his girdle which confined his tunic, and strap on the light sandals 
which he had laid aside while he slept. He was to throw around 
him his heavy cloak, as a protection against the sharp air of an 



474 Women of the Bible 

early spring morning. He and his guide pass the first sleeping 
sentinel; then the second at the prison entrance, and then went 
on to the iron gate opening into the street, which opened of its 
own accord. So rapidly and quietly and unexpectedly to him 
had all this been done, that he thought it was a dream and not a 
reality. 

As they reached the street his angel guide disappears and he 
is left alone. Hitherto he thought he saw a vision, but as he stood 
alone in the midst of the city, and recalled all the circumstances 
of his deliverance, aided perhaps by the cold, raw air of the 
morning, he realizes that he has been delivered, and that the 
Lord has accomplished the result. It were not at all strange that 
this man, so soon expecting death, and yet so suddenly placed 
on the unlit streets of the city, in the early morning while yet 
dark, should have been a little confused. The Lord does for us 
what we cannot do for ourselves. In other matters he supple- 
ments our powers and helps us to help ourselves. Peter, now 
being on the street, all need of a miracle is over, and he must use 
his wits as God intended all men to do. The fact that he at once 
concludes to go to the house of Mary shows that there existed 
a close tie of friendship between himself and the family and that, 
as this was the usual place of congregating, he would find some of 
his friends here, and finally did. 

What a wonderful meeting that must have been in Mary's 
house. "We know not how they shaped their supplications or 
what it was precisely that they asked; but we may conjecture that 
they earnestly besought either that he might be delivered, or that 
he might be sustained and strengthened so to die as to demonstrate 
to every beholder the beauty and power of that truth which he 
has so earnestly proclaimed. Nay, the very remembrance of that 
former deliverance, the report of which perhaps made Herod 
guard the prison so securely, would make them more earnest and 
believing in their prayers. They had no misgivings as to God's 
willingness to hear or ability to help* and so they arranged to meet 
each other at the throne of grace and make united supplications 
for the much-loved apostle." 

Mary's house was most likely built like other Eastern houses, 
around an open court. Fronting on the street was the gate or 
door which opened through the wall into the court. Alongside of 



Mary— the Mother of Mark 475 

this larger entrance there was often a little gate or door for the 
admission of members of the family and others. At this door 
Peter stood and knocked. It was probably some time after mid- 
night. A knock at such an unseasonable hour must have startled 
that little praying band, who were in danger of being hunted down 
by their enemies. Is it some one of their own number who could 
not come any earlier to the meeting? Has the king's appetite for 
blood been whetted with the death of James, and are the officials 
of the law here to make other arrests? Who can tell what that 
signal may mean? The little maid who kept the gate came to 
learn who was there. Peter must have been a frequent guest at 
this house, for when the servant girl heard his voice and saw his 
face she at once recognized him and ran back to the meeting to 
report the good news of his release. 

In due time he was admitted. They had been praying for his 
deliverance, and yet when it came it was a surprise to them. It 
seemed too good to be true. After congratulations and thanks- 
giving for his release, Peter in the hush of the hour gave an 
account of what had happened to him, "declaring how the Lord 
had brought him forth out of prison," no doubt in answer to their 
prayers. They should report these things to the other brethren 
who were not there, and especially to James, the brother of our 
Lord, who occupied a foremost place in the church at Jerusalem. 
It would be a comfort to him to know that Peter was safe and 
that the Lord had not forgotten his people. 

Such were the thrilling circumstances under which we are 
first introduced to Mary, the mother of Mark. What a commend- 
able record she has made for herself! She was fashioned of 
heroic material and thus she could hold life, property, position, 
reputation, all she had, so that all could be used in the Master's 
service and for his glory. The spirit of persecution was abroad in 
the land. Those in good social standing would at once be excluded 
from society and shunned by their former associates if they fol- 
lowed this so-called disturber of the peace, just as men and women 
are to-day in heathen lands where dense darkness and intense 
bigotry prevail. Mary's house would be a marked place and 
might at any time be razed to the ground. She herself might be 
imprisoned or be put to death as is being done in Armenia at this 
very hour. Yet she never faltered but went right on in the dis- 



476 Women of the Bible 

charge of her duty. She braved the attacks of the officials, and 
although she knew that arrangements had been made to put Peter 
to death on the morrow, she welcomed the stricken disciples to 
her home, and with them united in fervent petition to the Lord of 
hosts to come to their relief. 

The inspired record gives us no further account of this coura- 
geous woman except as we learn it through her son. The assem- 
bling at her home of the Master's friends had brought her boy 
in contact with Peter. He calls him ''Marcus, my son," and it is 
not unlikely he was instrumental in this boy's conversion. Other 
social influences might have led the boy to destruction as many are 
being led to-day. These same influences led him into the ministry 
no doubt with the mother's consent and approval. He was with 
Paul and Barnabas in their first missionary journey; was with 
Peter in Babylon (I. Peter 5 : 13) ; was with Paul during his first 
imprisonment at Rome. He seems to have been with Timothy at 
Ephesus, where Paul wrote him during his second imprisonment, 
and Paul was anxipus for Mark to come to Rome. And better 
than all else for us, we have a biography of Christ in the Gospel 
of St. Mark, through which comes to us the results of her influ- 
ence and life in the blessed work of her son. 

The opportunities for such centers of evangelistic work as the 
home of this woman afforded, can still be found wherever there is, 
as here, a loyal, courageous soul working for it. "I think now 
of women of our own generation whose private houses have been 
the meeting place of many a company for prayer, for conversation, 
for discussion, for work in behalf of efforts to emancipate our 
fellow men from bonds of sin. The wounded soldier, the be- 
nighted heathen, the oppressed slave, the victims of lust and 
drunkenness, the helpless children, the homeless orphan, the rich 
and the poor, the struggling mission school, the working church 
of Jesus — how many of these and kindred charities have had their 
birth and foster within the home of the Marys of our times! 
Still these and kindred causes knock at your gates. Still apostles 
of Christ lie bound in dungeon chains, and still a trembling church 
lifts up hands in the night to the God of salvation. Oh, women of 
America, dedicate your homes to the service of the Son of God. 
Lav your social influence on the altar of sacrifice unto the Most 
High." 



Clauota $rocula-= 

tije Wife of dilate 



"So, with a start, 
I brake the bonds of slumber, and I heard — 
Making my terror tender — angry roars 
As if a hundred beasts; men who cried out, 
'Crucify this one ! Free us, Bar-Rabban !' 
And, drawing nigh my latticed window, saw — 
Oh, Jove ! — Him of my vision, passing down, 
Godlike, but not yet crowned with cruel thorns, 
Nor pierced in hand or foot. What shall it mean? 
Was that — the Syrian with those searching eyes — 
My warner in the dream? Trembling to see, 
I snatched me tablets, drove the point i' the wax 
Hasteful, as thou didst note, and wrote the word, 
'Eheu.' Thou wouldst not heed!" 

—Mattheiv Arnold, in "The Light of the World/ 



ClauMa ^roctila— tfje Wife of plate 



PONTIUS PILATE, the procurator of Judea, under whom 
Christ was put to death, represents to us the authority of 
the Roman government. The country which had been 
taken from the Canaanites by Jehovah himself and given to his 
own people, had been forfeited by them, and a heathen people 
took possession of it. David and Solomon, who were the envy of 
the kings around them, have gone; the glory of their kingdoms 
has gone with them, and another sits upon the throne which God 
intended for his own. What has led to this remarkable condition 
of affairs? 

The persecutions of Antiochus Epiphanes called forth a glor- 
ious resistance, which ended in the independence of Judea. Judas 
Maccabaeus, "the Hammerer," as he was called, a brave, patriotic 
and competent man, organized his people and led them forth to 
victory. The battle which really gave his people a season of peace 
was fought in the year 161 B.C. At this time Judas began to hear 
something of the power of the people who dwelt beside the Tiber. 
He had learned of their victory over the Greeks with whom he had 
struggled, of their successes over the Gauls and the Spaniards, of 
their power to set up and cast down kings. He is especially 
attracted by their republican form of government, and by their 
senate, so much like the old Jewish Sanhedrin, and so he sends to 
Rome two deputies, Eupolemus and Jason, to propose a league 
against Syria. The league was formed, and the ambassadors 
returned in triumph, but the great Jewish leader was not there to 
hear their report, for he had been killed in battle. His purposes 
were good, but could he have foreseen the events of the following 
centuries, he would have witnessed that same power to whom he 
had lookd for help, crushing out his own people, carrying thou- 
sands of them captive and utterly demolishing the holy city. Alas, 
how little we know of the future or of the consequences of a 
single act. 

There is a painful contrast in the record of the liberation of 
Judea by the Maccabean brothers, and its misgovernment by their 



480 Women of the Bible 

posterity. Unholy ambition and religious discords soon began to 
show their baneful results. In 63 B.C. Pompey the Great, fresh 
from his victory over the last of the potentates of Asia, moved 
toward Palestine. At Antioch he dissolved the last remnant of the 
Syrian monarchy, and then advanced toward Damascus. This 
was a memorable year, for in it occurred the conspiracy of 
Cataline and the birth of Augustus. Another Jewish embassy 
comes to the Roman representative at Damascus. Not two such 
as Judas Maccabeas had sent, who themselves were loyal to their 
leaders and to the interests of the Jewish nation, and who repre- 
sented a loyal and courageous people, struggling for their very 
existence; but they were rival claimants for the empty honor of 
wielding a scepter as a Jewish monarch. These men, for their own 
personal aggrandizement, had plunged their country into a civil 
war, and are now here before a Roman general, willing to take his 
help at any cost, so their selfish purposes may be secured. Pom- 
pey decides in favor of the weaker of the two claimants, Hyrcanus, 
perhaps with the hope that under him the nation might sooner go 

to pieces. 

Aristobulus, the disappointed claimant, is not willing to sur- 
render his hopes, and so bids defiance to the conqueror of the 
East. The Roman army now leaves Damascus, spreads itself 
over the holy land, traverses the Jordan valley, and reaches Jer- 
icho, where the soldiers find themselves in the midst of such 
tropical vegetation as they had never seen before. They travel 
towards Jerusalem over the same road upon which the Master 
traveled at a later day, through Bethany and over Olivet, when 
the beautiful city burst upon their view. The army sweeps around 
the city and encompasses it. It falls at last after a three months' 
siege. Thousands were massacred, many sprang over precipitous 
cliffs and were dashed to pieces, while others died in the flames of 
their own houses which they themselves set on fire. At the tfme 
of the fall of the city, the priests were engaged in their sacred 
duties. "With a dignity as unshaken as that which the Roman 
senators showed when they confronted in their curule chairs the 
Gaulish invaders two centuries before, did the sacerdotal order 
of Jerusalem await their doom. They are robed in black sack- 
cloth, which in days of lamentation superseded their white gar- 
ment's, and sat immovable in their seats around the temple court 



Claudia Procula^the Wife of Pilate 481 

till they fell into the hands of their assailants." When Pompey 
found his way into the holy of holies, he was amazed to find only 
a vacant seat, an empty shrine. 

From this time forward Rome ruled the people of Israel. At 
the time of which we are now writing, Herod Antipas under 
Roman appointment governed Galilee and Petrea, and Pontius 
Pilate, as procurator, ruled Samaria and Judea. Pilate was the 
sixth procurator, five having preceded him. It had been foretold 
that "the sceptre shall not depart from Judah, nor a law-giver 
from between his feet, until Shiloh come" (Genesis 49: 10). The 
Shiloh had come, the sceptre had gone, the nation's independence 
was lost, her brave men have perished, and the grip of the Roman 
power is upon her. The Shiloh at this moment is in Pilate's hall 
before the representatives of the Roman Empire, brought here by 
his own countrymen, who are false to their own best ideals, false 
to their history, false to their God, and are clamoring for his death, 
that their own narrow, selfish teaching may not Be interfered with, 
nor their tyrannical hold on men's minds be overthrown. Pilate 
sits in the chair of Judah, having been brought there as a result of 
bitter jealousy, of factional wars, of party spirit, which planned 
and labored for selfish ends and not for the good of the nation. 
Similar ruin has this spirit brought elsewhere and such ruin it will 
bring to us. When the love of any country has died out of the 
hearts of its people and men labor exclusively for self-aggrandize- 
ment regardless of higher interests, the death knell of that people 
has already been sounded. It is God's law, and has not and will 
not be repealed. He that will save his life shall lose it, but he 
that will lose his life for others shall save it. If this American 
government would continue to exist, it must be administered for 
the public good, and not for soulless corporations. It must 
remember that nations are responsible in God's sight, and that the 
Power which scattered the Jewish nation to the four winds and 
which pulled to pieces the magnificent Roman Empire, still lives, 
and in his hands all the nations of the earth are as grasshoppers. 

At this stage in his history, Pilate is not in good odor with the 
Jewish people. Not long after his appointment, he undertook to 
remove the headquarters of his army from Caesarea to Jerusalem. 
The soldiers took with them their standards, which bore the image 
of the emperor, into the holy city. They were sent in during the 



482 Women of the Bible 

night, and when the people discovered in the morning what had 
been done, there were scarcely any bounds to their rage. They 
poured down to Csesarea in crowds beseeching Pilate to remove 
these images. After five days of waiting for them to depart, he 
gave the signal to some concealed soldiers to put them to death, 
unless they ceased to trouble him. This only increased their 
determination, and they declared they would rather submit to 
death than to endure such a violation of their principles. Pilate 
was compelled to relent and the standards were taken back to 
Caesarea. No previous governor had ever ventured on such an 
outrage. On another occasion he almost drove the Jews to insur- 
rection when, in spite of this first warning, about the images, he 
hung up in his palace in Jerusalem some gilt shields inscribed with 
the names of pagan deities, and which were only removed by an 
order from Tiberius himself. Again there was a revolt of the 
people when he took from the treasury the money accruing from 
redemption vows — the corban — and misappropriated this fund, 
for which the Jews had great reverence, to the building of an 
aqueduct. This' riot, according to Josephus, was suppressed by 
sending among the crowd soldiers with concealed daggers, who 
massacred a great number not only of the rioters but of casual 
spectators. It is supposed by some that Barabbas was connected 
with this insurrection. The slaughter of certain Galileans, referred 
to by Luke (13 : 1), most likely at some feast when the blood of 
the worshipers was mingled with their sacrifices, is another exam- 
ple of how he sought to rule this people. Indeed, riots and mas- 
sacres were of so frequent an occurrence that it seems needless 
for the historian to recount them all. 

It was the custom for the procurator to reside at Jerusalem 
during the great feast. It is now Passover time and he is here with 
his soldiers. At this annual feast, vast crowds come up to the 
city, many of them are full of religious enthusiasm and imbued 
with a national spirit. Others gather there who are restless and 
disquieted because of Roman rule, and the possible danger of 
insurrection will require Pilate's presence. With the record which 
he has already made, he will need to do what he can to secure the 
good will of the influential Jews. He is in his official residence 
which most likely is the castle Antonia. It was close to the temple, 
had been arranged as a fortress and castle combined, and there 




w 



in 
h 

< 



fa 
O 






Claudia Procula—the Wife of Pilate 483 

he could dwell in the midst of his troops, who would be at his 
call in any emergency. Jesus had been condemned to death by 
the Jewish Sanhedrin, but he could not be executed without the 
sanction of the Roman official. It was now early morning and 
the Jewish rulers had been up most of the night in their nefarious 
business "The breath of spring was fresh upon the slopes of 
Olivet, the birds were singing in the olive groves of Gethsemane 
and the palm trees of Kedron's vale, as the tumultuous senators 
pushed out of the hot Sanhedrin chamber in the temple cloisters 
and thronged the way to Pilate's mansion." This innocent pris- 
oner, most likely chained to a soldier's arm as was their usual 
custom, was hurried along with them. 

As they reached the judgment hall' of Pilate, they suddenly 
stopped. Have they concluded that their prisoner is not at all 
dangerous and are they willing to let him go ? No such good news 
as this. These Jewish leaders just now remember that they are 
holy men, and if they should enter a Gentile house, they would 
become ceremonially unclean, and would be debarred from the 
privileges of the Passover. The only thing to be done was to 
send a message to the governor asking him to come out We are 
appalled at such conduct. Their hearts were sufficiently hardened 
against all justice that they were about to commit a crime without 
any feelings of contrition, and yet they seem extremely sensitive 
concerning a small, ceremonial impropriety. 

Pilate courteously responds, and comes forth even at this early 
hour to inquire as to their wishes. He may have been the more 
willing to do this for the Sanhedrin is making the request It 
looks as though they had concluded that a simple request for the 
life of this Jew would be granted without any especial inquiry so 
they simply represent him as a disturber of the peace. But Pilate 
had too much respect for the Roman sense of justice, at least 
understood his business too well as a Roman official, to put to 
death a man without a more definite and serious charge against 
him. If our surmises are correct, his wife must have known 
something of the man, and may have communicated her knowl- 
edge to her husband. The Jews knew he would take no account 
of their theological disputes, so they prepare themselves for the 
emergency by interpreting our Lord's claims from a political 
standpoint, a sense which he did not mean, and which they knew 



484 Women of the Bible 

he did not mean, and by so doing have him arrested for treason. 
"We found this fellow perverting the nation, and forbidding to 
give tribute to Caesar, saying that he himself is Christ a King." 
They think they have caught Pilate now, and on this charge he 
must act. 

Pilate seems to be controlled by two conflicting feelings. If 
he seemed lukewarm in punishing an offense against the imperial 
government, it would give the Jews new reasons for accusation 
against him, and he was not at best in very good repute among 
them. Then again it seemed to him absurd to_think the Sanhedrin 
would bring this man to trial, because he wanted to free the nation 
from Roman authority. Suspecting the innocence of the man, 
and to satisfy himself more fully, he examines our Lord privately. 
His training, his knowledge of men, and his experience in deciding 
questions of guilt or innocence, satisfy him there is no danger to 
the government to be apprehended from this man, who indeed 
claims to be a King, but whose kingdom he asserts is not of this 
world. He reports to the Jewish dignitaries the result of his 
investigations in the words, "I find no fault in him at all." His 
accusers were greatly disappointed, and in the midst of their 
reiterated charges he hears the word "Galilee." This suggests 
to him a way out of the difficulty, and as this man belongs to 
Herod's jurisdiction he will send him to Herod, who was at that 
time spending some days in the city. Herod declines to take the 
responsibility off his hands, so having dressed him in a shining 
kingly robe, to express his ridicule for his apparent pretensions, 
sends him ba*ck to Pilate. Again the Sanhedrin are before the 
hall to hear the governor's report: "I have examined the man 
and find no fault in him. I sent you with him to Herod and he has 
found no fault in him. I will therefore chastise him and release 
him." 

"I will chastise him," and he an innocent, unoffending man! 
How the words appall us! They were intended to appease an 
angry senate with a mob gathered about them, but they served only 
to inflame their thirst for blood. In order to save him he proposes 
to release him, as it was customary at the time of the feast to 
release some one, but they cry out in their furious rage, "Crucify 
him!" "It is a humiliating spectacle — a judge pleading for the 
life of one who has been arraigned at his own bar, when he had 



Claudia Procula — the Wife of Pilate 485 

again and again pronounced him innocent, and when he had full 
power to discharge him. How Pilate must have despised that 
howling mob of bigots, those ministers of religion, raising the 
tiger cry for blood ! How fre must have despised himself ! He 
knew that he was doing wrong, violating law, justice, humanity, 
and honor, but the influence of these yelling senators was need- 
ful just then to strengthen him in his position. They could injure 
him before Tiberius, with the charge that he had released one who 
set himself up to be a King. He cowered before the fear of 
offending Caesar and losing his position." Is it any wonder when 
th>e love of place had so obscured the man's sense of justice, when 
the thought of self and his own interest became more powerful 
than the success of truth, the protection of innocence, or the honor 
of his government, thajt he yielded to the mob and "the voices of 
them prevailed"? The Berna,, the portable judgment seat which 
was carried about by the Roman magistrates, was now brought. 
In this case it was placed on a tesselated pavement in front of the 
palace, and on a slight elevation. From this elevation the official 
decree was to be pronounced. Think of it! Upon this seat sat 
Pilate to administer justice, and remember that he was about to 
condemn, and finally did condemn to death, an innocent man, 
simply because the bigoted Jews — not the rabble, but the priests, 
the scribes, the doctors, of divinity, clamored for his crucifixion. 

At this juncture in affairs, a messenger arrives from Pilate's 
own household. He carries a message from Pilate's wife, most 
likely written on ivory tablets as was not uncommon, to her hus- 
band. In the earlier periods of the nation's history, as long as the 
commonwealth existed, it was very unusual for the governors of 
provinces to take their wives with them, and in the regulations 
which Augustus introduced he did not allow the favor, except 
under peculiar and specified circumstances. The practice grew 
more and more prevalent and was customary in Pilate's day. A 
motion was made in the Roman senate (A.D. 21) that no magis- 
trate to any province should be accompanied by his wife, but it 
was indignantly rejected. A friendly message which Pilate re- 
ceived, asking him to stop before it was too late to retrace his 
steps,^ was in these urgent words, "Have thou nothing to do with 
that just man, for I have suffered many things this day in a 
dream because of him." 



486 Women of the Bible 

We should rejoice if we knew more concerning this woman, 
who thus throws herself across the pathway of her husband who, 
perhaps unconsciously to himself, is rushing along to perdition 
and making for himself a name which shall merit the scorn and 
contempt and utter loathing of all men until the end of time ; but 
our knowledge is very limited. She at once comes into view, plays 
a very important part, and then is gone from us forever except 
as she appears in the traditions connected with the life of her hus- 
band. Her name is given as Claudia Procula. She had given up 
paganism, accepted the true God, and became a proselyte of the 
gate. As early as the time of Origen (185 A.D.) there was a 
tradition that she became a Christian. The Greek church has 
canonized her. She evidently knew something of Christ, for she 
at once pronounces him a just man, and urges her husband to 
have nothing to do with his condemnation. She had earnestly been 
watching the proceedings of the trial, for her message came before 
the final decision had been given. She must have known that her 
husband was destitute of principle. He was indeed willing to do 
right, if he could do so without personal disadvantage. She knew 
that if these men were determined in their purpose they could 
finally injure her husband, just as he feared they would and finally 
did, and his injury she suffers. But in spite of all this, true to her 
womanly instincts, her faith as a Christian, if she were a Christian, 
she will be loyal to the truth and save this man's life as well as 
save her husband from a great crime ; and so she interferes with 
her voice and influence to see that justice is done. 

There is nothing unreasonable in the tradition that this woman 
was a Christian. Paul, in writing to the Philippians from Rome, 
says, "My bonds in Christ are manifest in all the palace" (1 : 13) ; 
the margin reads, "In Caesar's court." In the closing verses of the 
epistle he writes again (4:22), "All the saints salute you, chiefly 
they that are of Caesar's household." This must refer to Nero, 
who was at that time the reigning emperor. Says Dr. Albert 
Barnes on these verses : "From this it would seem that some of 
the family of the emperor had been made acquainted with the 
Christian religion and had been converted. It does not of neces- 
sity refer to those related to him, but it may be applied to domes- 
tics or to some of the officers of the court." If she were a secret 
believer, as we know there were others, the plea she made this day 



Claudia Procula — the Wife of Pilate 487 

became a confession of her faith in the "just man" whose life that 
day was at the mercy of a mob led by high officials in the Jewish 
church. If she were simply the wife of a Roman officer, in whom 
predominated the Roman sense of justice, unwilling that her 
husband or her nation should be degraded by such a perversion of 
justice, she still shows herself to us as one willing at any cost to 
place herself on the side of truth, where she shall have the 
approbation of her own conscience, the satisfaction of having, as a 
loyal wife, earnestly sought to turn her husband from a proposed 
wrong, and the commendation of coming generations. 

This woman was aroused to duty by a dream. "There be those 
indeed, victims of superstition, who have multiplied dreams of 
their own making, and brought the dream part of our life into 
contempt; but God has used the dream through every age of 
human history, and the vision of the night, and out of these have 
come strange issues and often beneficent endings. Pilate's wife 
Lad a dream by day. If the chief priests and elders were busy in 
the morning, so the great God, watching over all, sent a daydream 
upon a good woman. We lock up our dreams and make them 
night visitants. God sends them at noon, closes the eye, and makes 
an angel talk to us. He shuts out the vulgar visible world, and 
makes to pass before the mystical eyes of the soul a panorama of 
his purpose and meaning, and we come out of that trance with a 
new world swinging before our bewildered gaze." The Romans 
had great faith in dreams. Homer declared, "They come from 
Jove." In obedience to dreams, the great emperor Augustus went 
begging money through the streets of Rome. Dreams were em- 
ployed by Jehovah in Old Testament times, occasionally to God's 
servants during periods of their most imperfect knowledge of him. 
As the Lord made use of a star to direct astrologers to the cradle 
of Jesus, so may he have made use of a dream to warn Pilate from 
a participation in the condemnation of Christ. Nor would an 
ordinary dream be spoken of in this way as a dream of bitter 
agony. Neither would such a dream have led a Roman wife to 
send a dissuasive message to her husband when seated on the 
judgment seat. Some apparition, something supernatural, some- 
thing awful to look upon, must have occurred. Strange that a 
heathen woman should be the only human being who had the 
courage to plead the cause of the Savior during those dreadful 



/ 



488 Women of the Bible 

hours when his disciples forsook him and the fanatical multitudes 
clamored for his blood. 

There is every indication that the procurator was visibly influ- 
enced by his wife's earnest appeal. Well would it have been for 
him had he followed her clearer insight, her more loyal convic- 
tions, her revelations from God, and thus have honored his own 
convictions of duty and saved himself from world-wide condem- 
nation. But, situated as he was, how could he have done as she 
advised? He was a worldly-minded statesman, conscious of no 
higher wants than th^se of this life, and yet by no means unmoved 
by feelings of justice and mercy; but all his better feelings were 
overpowered by a selfish regard for his own security. He would 
not encounter the least hazard of personal annoyance in behalf 
of innocence and justice. The unrighteous condemnation of a 
good man was a trifle in comparison with the fear of the emperor's 
frown and the loss of place and power. This affair, with him, had 
gone too far to be controlled by a weak man. Before the final 
order is given, he washes his hands in the presence of that mur- 
derous mob, as a sign that he was not responsible for his crime. 
"I am innocent of the blood of this just person ; see ye to it." But 
alas for this weak man; he was making stains of guilt that day 
which oceans of water could not wash out. By this official con- 
sent, a man whom he knew to be innocent was put to death. 

There were a number of courses open to this ruler, each of 
which would bring different results. He should have given Christ 
a fair trial, and if found innocent he should have stood by him to 
the last. Under no circumstances should the prisoner have been 
given up to this cruel mob. It might have caused a riot, but Pilate 
had witnessed such before and could afford to participate in 
another rather than to allow an innocent man to suffer. He had 
the Roman police within call, and he could have swept the city had 
the people dared to rebel, and all men of all time would have 
applauded him. If the worst should come, at the risk of his office 
or his own life this man should have been defended and the per- 
sons disposed to excite a riot be punished if they attempted to 
carry out their plans. This was the open, manly plan, which a 
well-balanced ruler would have adopted. 

The next plan was to find him guilty and then put him to death. 
Had the evidence justified such a step, no reasonable man would 



Claudia Procula — the Wife of Pilate 489 

have blamed him. This plan was open to him before he gave any 
decision; even after that, if new, evidence came in, he could have 
changed his mind. He persists, however, in declaring the inno- 
cence of the accused, a'nd yet is unwilling or afraid to exercise his 
authority to defend him. The most unjust and most dangerous 
thing for him to do, and yet at the same time the thing which 
seemed to promise the greatest personal safety, was to pronounce 
him innocent, and yet officially to consent to and order his death. 
He tried every means except the right one to avoid such a gross 
inconsistence, but the means used were unavailing. "Poor mockery 
of a ruler! Set by the Eternal to do right on earth and afraid to 
do it ; told so by his own bosom ; strong enough in his legions and 
in the truth itself to have saved the innocent One and kept his own 
soul — he could only think of the apparently expedient. Type of 
the politician of all ages who forgets that only the right is the 
strong and the wise." 

After all Pilate's efforts to avoid giving offense to Caesar, he 
was not saved from political disaster. The Samaritans became 
rebellious and Pilate led his troops against them and defeated them. 
He went to Rome to answer accusations against him, and found 
Tiberius dead and Caligula on the throne. Wearied with mis- 
fortune he is said to have killed himself. There are various tradi- 
tions as to where this occurred. One of these is that he sought 
to hide his sorrows in the loneliness of the mountains by the side 
of Lake Lucerne, and after spending some years in the recesses 
of the mountains, in remorse and despair he plunged into the 
dismal lake which occupies its summit. Says Walter Scott : "Ac- 
cording to the popular belief a form is often seen to emerge from 
the glowing waters and go through the action of one washing his 
hands ; and when he does so, dark clouds of mist gather fast 
around the bosom of the infernal lake, as it was styled of old, and 
then wrapping the whole upper part of the mountains, presage a 
tempest or hurricane which is sure to follow in a short space." 
It is a type of the unrest of the man who smites unto death the 
Christ within himself, the voice of conscience within his own soul. 

This woman's plea was not granted, but still her act was not 
in vain. Xo good deed against wrongdoing is ever in vain. By 
this act sne testified her belief in the innocence of the accused 
Christ. She did her duty and had the comfort of an approving 



490 Women of the Bible 

conscience, the plaudits of all ages, and the approval of God. Her 
example has encouraged others to stand for the truth, when all the 
odds seem to be against them. "Her example is a call to girdle 
our seats of justice with woman's prayer. Whatever else may be 
denied her, the right of petition and remonstrance is hers, and in 
the wise exercise of that right there opens up a path of usefulness 
which may lead into broad fields of success. Let her plead for 
good laws and faithful administration, for clean, well-paved 
streets, that her person and home may be free from the horror of 
drifting dust, foul with street filth; let her plead for pure water 
and ample sewerage that her family may be saved from malaria- 
breeding and pestilence-hatching germs ; let her plead for the exe- 
cution of Sabbath laws, temperance laws, laws against gambling; 
let her lift her voice for every law and policy that saves husbands, 
sons, brothers, her fellow-men from peril, and against all men and 
measures that spread and protect the fatal snares that threaten her 
peace by imperiling health and morals; let her do all this with 
such wisdom, zeal, and persistency as women can command, and 
see if the lagging limbs of reform be not started into fresh vigor. 
Why should woman be silent on themes like these, when man's 
partnership, treachery, sluggishness, poltroonery, and covetousness 
are betraying the interests of community, are sacrificing the wel- 
fare of helpless wives and children? Why should not Procula 
cry 'Pause' when Pilate from the very judgment seat is delivering 
Christ to doom?" 



Hpbta=-tf)e Jftrflit €«ropean 

Conbert 



"What is it, indeed, that we reduce women to, when we argue that they 
have no right to meddle with public affairs, no right to follow professions, 
no right to occupy themselves with any really intellectual pursuits, no 
right to take any interest in aught outside their families, no right to any 
education save that which is devoted to showing off their charms? Do we 
not in truth reduce them to the mere slaves of the harem? Do we not, 
like those who keep such slaves, deny in fact that they have any souls? 
What can they do with souls if nature means them only to be toys of our 
idle hours, the adornment of ease and wealth, to be worshiped as "idols, but 
never taken as helpmates, permitted at most to gaze from afar >at the 
battles of life — to crown the victory with a wreath, or to shed weak tears 
for the dead? But even those who tell us so, or use arguments that mean 
so, know well that in their hearts they belie the words they utter. They 
know that in their straits they turn to women for sympathy because women 
have understood their struggles; they seek women's council because they 
know that women are intellectually fit to advise them; and thev only 
effect contempt for female capacity because of the pitiful pride that 
refuses to acknowledge a capacity that in many things is on a level with 
their own, and if in some things lower, in other things is higher than 
theirs." —John Boyd-Kinnear. 



Upbta — tfje Jftr^t European Cottbert 



PAUL, accompanied by Silas, starts on his second missionary 
journey. His first thought was to confirm and more fully 
establish the little churches which had been founded on his 
first trip. He now goes through Syria and Cilicia. At Lystra he 
finds Timothy, who had been converted during his former visit. 
His father being a Greek and his mother a Jewess, the young man 
would no doubt be helpful to him in reaching the Gentiles. He 
takes him with him as "his son," and thereafter no name is more' 
closely associated with Paul's than that of Timothy. It did not 
seem to be a part of Paul's plan at present to preach to the 
Galatians, who were not a very promising people, but the Lord led 
him thither and he was detained there by illness. He founded 
several churches here, and then the missionaries retraced their 
steps. They planned a visit to Bithynia, a wealthy province in 
the north, but their plans were divinely overruled. They made no 
attempt to preach in Mysia, probably because of the absence of 
synagogues, but passed on to Troas where a remarkable event 
awaited them. 

Paul had been laboring for some time among the mixed races 
of Asia Minor. He was himself a Roman citizen. The many 
military metaphors in his epistles show that he was struck with 
admiration for the order, discipline, dignity, and reverence for 
law which characterized the Roman government. Years after this, 
he tells in the following language how his thoughts went out 
toward Rome itself, "I have had a great desire these many years to 
come to you." He reaches Troas where a surprise awaits him. 
Troas was the name of a district of cguntry as well as of a town. 
The region around about extending from Mount Ida to the plain 
watered by the Simoas and Scamander, was the scene of the 
Trojan 1 \Yar. "It was due to the poetry of Homer that the ancient 
name of Priam's kingdom should be retained. This shore has 
been visited on many memorable occasions by the great men of this 
world. Xerxes passed by this way when he undertook to con- 



494 Women of the Bible 

quer Greece. Julius C^sar was here after the battle of Pharsalia. 
But above all we associate the spot with a European conqueror of 
Asia and an Asiatic conqueror of Europe, with Alexander of 
Macedon, and Paul of Tarsus. Here Alexander girded on his 
armor, and from this goal he started to overthrow the august 
dynasties of the East. And now the great apostle rests in his 
triumphal progress upon the same poetic shore. Here he is armed 
by heavenly visitants with the weapons of a warfare that is not 
carnal ; and hence he is sent forth to subdue all the powers of the 
West and to bring the civilization of the world into captivity to 
the obedience of Christ." 

Turning from the district to the town of Troas, we must re- 
member it was a seaport town four or five miles from the site of 
the ancient city. It was built by Alexander the Great, and was 
called Alexandria Troas. The Romans of that day called it New 
Troy, and it was one of the most important cities of that section. 
Julius Caesar had thought of making it the capital of the Roman 
Empire. Three centuries later Constantine the Great, before ho 
chose Byzantium, had fixed upon Troas as the future seat of his 
vast empire. Says Gibbon, "Though the undertaking was soon 
relinquished, the stately remains of unfinished walls and towers 
attracted the notice of all who sailed through the Hellespont." 
The scene of the wonderful poem, Homer's Iliad, was laid at Troy, 
and within our times the wonderful story has been confirmed by 
the excavations of Dr. Schleiman. Paul understood Greek, and 
he may have thought of the wonderful deeds of the old Greeks, or 
the story of Achilles, or may have enjoyed the scenery of the 
place. He could have appreciated both, but he was a soldier in 
a different war, and as a soldier of his Master from this point he 
was to bear the gospel not only to Greece but to all the great West. 

Paul happily meets Luke here at Troas, and now there are 
four of them in this little army of attack. We do not know where 
Paul first met Luke, but probably at Antioch, and he may have 
been one of Paul's converts, as was Timothy. Luke was not a 
born Jew, but was of Gentile descent. The higher ranks of the 
Romans were averse to the practice of medicine, which they left 
to their freedmen, and which is a strong indication that Luke 
himself was a f reedman. He seems to have been an educated, 
well-informed Greek, who was skilled in medical science. 



Lydia — the First European Convert 495 

Whether he joined Paul and the rest of the company at Troas by 
prearrangement, or by a providential necessity and with reference 
to Paul's delicate health, which had been affected while in Galatia, 
we cannot tell. He would make a valuable addition to the party 
and no doubt they appreciated his presence. His medical skill 
would not only be of great help to Paul, but would be generally 
helpful in gaining an opening to preach the gospel among the Gen- 
tiles, as it helps to-day in our missionary work among the heathen. 
Paul became deeply attached to him and calls him the "beloved 
physician," His faithfulness is seen in the touching reference Paul 
makes in his letter to Timothy, "only Luke is with me." He was 
with Paul in his journeyings, his dangers, and his shipwreck. He 
cheered his imprisonment both at Csesarea and at Rome. He 
finally became his biographer and with his accuracy and careful- 
ness is due nearly all we know of one who labored more abun- 
dantly than all the apostles. Plis familiarity with naval matters 
indicates that at some time he may have worked on the merchant 
vessels coasting from place to place along the Mediterranean. 
What became of him after the apostle's death we do not know, 
but it is commonly supposed he was of mature age when he became 
acquainted with Paul, and survived him some years, dying at the 
age of about eighty years. 

We have no account of any preaching this time while Paul is 
at Troas. He seems to be here without any mission, but his stay 
proves to be a very short one. He was divinely hindered from 
going into Asia. Not having planned to do so, he was yet sent 
into Galatia. Pie attempted to go into Bithynia, but was prevented. 
He went to Troas probably, because having been hindered from 
preaching in these other places, he may have had an impression 
that from this seaport he should take passage for some new field, 
but where he did not know. Like Abraham he started out not 
knowing whither he should go. But he need not worry, nor was 
he left long in doubt. He was about his Master's business and the 
same power which had called him into the work and had led him 
thus far would guide him still. In addition to the double inter- 
ference of the Spirit as already seen by Paul, a special vision was 
necessary to turn his eye toward Europe. Such a mission to 
Western lands was a difficult undertaking. The conditions under 
which he had carried forward his work hitherto would be changed. 



496 Women of the Bible 

There would be new difficulties for him to face. He may have 
queried as to what all these things meant. During the night, 
"there stood a man of Macedonia, and prayed him, saying, Come 
over into Macedonia, and help us" He may have recognized the 
man by his manner of dress or by the words he spoke. These 
people wanted help against their own blindness and the power of 
Satan. It is the cry for the gospel in all ages and no Christian can 
read it without deep feeling. In the morning he tells his com- 
panions of the vision of the previous night, and the brief record 
states, "Immediately we sought to go forth into Macedonia, infer- 
ring that the Lord had called us to preach the gospel to them." 

That night at Troas, according to human judgment, was one 
of the most eventful nights in the world's history. On that won- 
derful vision hung the Christianization of Europe, and all the 
blessings of our modern civilization. It was more important for 
the success of God's cause that Paul should go to Europe than to 
Bithynia. The latter country was early Christianized but not by 
Paul. The morning sun the following day shone with a new smile 
upon those Western lands. Four hundred years before this a great 
army of nine hundred thousand men were being marshaled in 
these waters to conquer Greece, but it did not after all affect the 
civilization of Europe. Paul is but one man, with no army behind 
him and with no sword in his hand, yet he will soon be on his way 
to Greece. Few,, if any, knew of his presence at Troas and prob- 
ably none cared, but he was the bearer of a message which would 
change the face of the Western world. He carried the gospel to 
Europe and from there it came to America, and we to-day recog- 
nize him, who never dreamed of this land, as its most important 
benefactor. He little knew what depended on the decisions of 
that night and how much was involved in his sailing for Europe. 
But God knew it all for he planned it all, using, as he often does, 
apparently weak instruments for the accomplishing of great re- 
sults. He may sometimes keep us out of avenues which may 
seem to us very fruitful, because he has more important places for 
us to enter. Happy is the man who places himself entirely at 
God's disposal. Macedonia did not know its own need, but God 
did, and provided for it. 

There is now no longer any uncertainty. The morning stars 
appeared over the cliffs of Mount Ida. The sun arose and spread 



Lydia — the First European Convert 497 

over the sea and the islands. The men of Troas awoke to their 
accustomed trade and labor. Among those who are busy about the 
ships in the harbor are four Christian travelers who are seeking 
for a passage to Europe. They carry with them the destinies of 
untold millions. God had provided a vessel for his ambassadors 
and they set sail with a favorable breeze. As the south wind 
sped them on their course, so they made the journey of one hun- 
dred miles in two days, which usually took five, did they not have 
a fresh sign that He who holds the winds in his fist was with them 
and would bring them to their desired haven? They reached 
Neapolis, the port of Philippi. It was about eight miles from the 
city proper. Paul could not linger here, so he passes through the 
western gate and starts for the town of Philippi. 

There is a Roman road direct from Neapolis, paved through- 
out and cut through the least passable part of a moderate swell of 
mountains. A missionary who visited this place some years since 
thus describes it : "When we arrived at the top of the mountain, 
the place where Paul must have had the first glance of that plain 
and city where he was to open the proclamation of the gospel on 
"European ground, I turned around to see what impression the 
spectacle might have made upon him, and truly a more inspiring 
prospect cannot well be fancied. The road is broad enough and 
the hills so widening toward the plain, that a very large and rich 
part of the latter becomes visible at once ; and the direction of the 
road is such as to throw the hill projecting, with the Acropolis on 
ite summit and the city of Philippi at its base, right into the center 
of the picture. ... I have no doubt that Paul and his little 
missionary band stopped here with wonder and delight, and looked 
down into the field and the plains with anticipations of absorbing 
interest. It may be they sat down upon some of these rocks to 
rest themselves after the wearisome mountain was gained, and to 
strengthen each other in the Lord by pious conversation, and by 
the repetition of many a precious promise respecting the conver- 
sion of the whole world and the eventual universality of Christ's 
kingdom. It may be that they withdrew a little into a solitary 
place among these woods to join in prayer for yonder Philippi, for 
all Macedonia, and for a fallen world." 

The ancient site of Philippi is occupied by a very small village 
named Filiba. There are some extensive ruins here. Says one : 



498 Women of the Bible 

"The remains of the fortress upon the top consist of three ruined 
towers and considerable portions, walls of stone, brick, and very 
hard mortar. The plain between exhibits nothing but ruins or 
heaps of stone and rubbish overgrown with thorns and briars ; but 
nothing is now seen of the numerous busts and statues and thou 1 
sands of columns and vast masses of classic ruins of which earlier 
travelers speak. Ruins of private buildings are still discernible, 
also something o-f a semi-circular shape probably a forum or 
marketplace— perhaps the one in which Paul and Silas received 
their undeserved stripes. The most prominent among the ruins 
are the remains of an ancient palace, the architecture of which is 
grand and the materials costly. The pilasters, chapiters, etc., are 
of the finest white marble and the walls were formerly encased in 
the same stone, but have gradually been knocked down by the 
Turks to furnish materials for their preposterous gravestones. A 
large portion of the ruins is said to be covered with stagnant 

water." 

Philippi was a Roman colony, a military and not a commercial 
town, and there would not be many Jews there. Probably a good 
proportion of Greek with the Latin population. There were not 
enough Jews to support a synagogue, so they had one of their 
buildings, termed Proseuchae, a place of prayer, which was dis- 
tinguished from a regular place of worship by being of a more 
temporary nature and frequently opened to the sky. It may have 
been located outside the gate for greater quiet, or because the 
people would not allow them to worship inside; they were "by the 
riverside" in consequence of the ablutions, connected with their 
worship. Such worship was not distasteful to the Jews. Says 
Biscoe : "The seashore was esteemed by the Jews a place most 
pure, and therefore proper to offer up their prayers and thanks- 
givings to Almighty God. Philo tells us that the Jews of Alex- 
andria, when Flaccus, the governor of Egypt, who had been their 
great enemy, was arrested by order of the emperor Cams, not 
being able to assemble at their synagogues which had been taken 
from them,.crowded out at the gates of the city early in the morn- 
ing to the neighboring shores and, standing in a most pure place, 
with one accord lifted up their voices in praising God. Tertul- 
lian says that the Jews in his time, when they kept their great 
fast, left their synagogues and on every shore sent forth their 




TAUL AND LYDIA AT THE RIVERSIDE 



Lydia — the First European Convert 499 

prayers to heaven. And long before Tertullian's time there was 
a decree made at Halicarnassus in favor of the Jews, which, among 
other privileges, allows them to say their prayers near the shore 
according to the custom of their country. It is hence abundantly 
evident that it was common with the Jews to choose the shore as 
a place highly fitting to offer up their prayers." 

This missionary company probably reached the city during the 
week and their first business would be to provide for their own 
independent support while there, to which Luke would be able to 
contribute by the practice of his business. They probably did no 
preaching unless in their own rooms. They had not heard of any 
synagogue, but knowing the custom of the Jews they would look 
for something of that kind if existing at all, near the river. In 
going down to the river Gangites they passed under the arch 
which commemorated the great victory of Philippi, ninety-four 
years before. In passing to the banks the missionaries were on 
the very ground on which the battle had been fought, and near 
which the camp of Brutus and Cassius had stood, separated by the 
river from the army of Octavianus and Anthony. When thev 
reached the place they found only a few women assembled, and 
these not all of Jewish birth and not all residents of Philippi. 
This may have been in part from their husbands' having become 
negligent in their duty in the absence of the synagogue, or because 
many of the women were wives of Gentile husbands. This was 
no time for formal sermons, so they sat down and entered into 
conversation with this little group of worshipers. Wherever 
there are unconverted souls who are willing to listen to the truth, 
there the faithful missionary and the holy preacher may find an 
audience. Nor was this service without a good result. In that 
little audience sat a thoughtful woman who was a proselyte to 
Judaism, and who was in the habit of attending Jewish services. 
As she sat listening to this man of God, conviction seized her 
heart. She accepted the truth as spoken by Paul, and in proof of 
her sincerity, she with all her household were baptized. 

The extravagance of the age created a large demand for 
purple in the market of Rome, and Lydia found room for her 
trade in this Roman city of Philippi. She was originally of 
Thyatira, a city on the confines of Mysia and one of the seven 
churches addressed by John the Revelator. The city was cele- 



500 Women of the Bible 

brated in an early day for its purple dyes and fabrics. Among the 
ruins of that city has been found an inscription relating to the 
guild of dyers, curiously testifying to and confirming even the 
unimportant parts of this story. The business which brought 
Lydia to Philippi was connected, either with the sale of the color- 
ing matter, or more likely with the fabrics already dyed. The city 
is still distinguished for its dyers even to this day. "In answer 
to inquiries on the subject it is said that the clothes which are 
dyed scarlet here are considered superior to any others furnished 
by Asia Minor, and that large quantities are sent weekly to 
Smyrna for the purposes of commerce." 

Different accounts are given concerning the origin of this rich 
color, but all ascribe it to the juice of a certain species of shellfish. 
It is ascribed by some to the Tyrian Hercules, whose dog, it is said, 
instigated by hunger, broke a certain kind of shellfish on the coast 
of Tyre, and his mouth becoming stained of a beautiful color, his 
master was induced to try its properties on wool and gave his 
first specimens to the king of Tyre, who admired the color so much 
that he restricted the use of it by law to the royal garments. The 
ancients applied the term translated "purple" not on one color only 
but to the whole class of dyes manufactured from the juices of the 
shellfish. There was therefore a difference in the color obtained 
from the purples of different coasts. "The juice is perfectly white 
while in the vein, but upon being laid on linen it soon appears, 
first of a light green color, and if exposed to the air and sun soon 
after changes into a deep green and in a few minutes to a 
sea green, and in a few more into a blue. Thence it speedily 
becomes of a purple red, and in an hour more, of a deep pur- 
ple red, which, upon being washed in scalding water and soap, 
ripens into a bright and most beautiful crimson which is 
permanent." The Israelites seemed to have had purple stuff 
in plenty in the wilderness, which they had likely brought with 
them out of Egypt. Pliny tells us it was worn by Romulus and 
the succeeding kings of Rome and by the consuls and first magis- 
trates under the republic. It is said Julius Caesar prohibited its 
use by Roman subjects except on certain days. Nero prohibited 
it altogether upon pain of death. It was bestowed by kings upon 
their favorites. 



Lydia — the First European Convert 501 

Lydia was at once baptized, no doubt in the stream which 
flowed by the place of prayer. There is some uncertainty as to 
what is included in the term "household." Meyer thinks most 
likely they were the female assistants connected 'with her trade. 
It might have been these, or her slaves, or her children, or all 
collectively. This is the first passage in the life of Paul where we 
have an example of this family religion, to which he so often al- 
ludes in his Epistles. We do not know that Lydia had any chil- 
dren, or that she was even a married woman, as there is not the 
remotest reference to any husband. One of the results of her con- 
version which at once manifested itself was her hospitalitv, which 
elsewhere is so emphatically enjoined on God's people." '"If ye 
have judged me," she said, "to be faithful to the Lord, come to 
my house and stay there." To do so was not in accordance with 
the principles which usually governed Paul. While he insisted 
on the right of every laborer to be maintained by those whom he 
served, yet that the gospel in his hands might not be misrepre- 
sented, he preferred that his labor should be gratuitous. She would 
not be refused, so Paul and his company accepted her courteous 
invitation. Pier business most likely was a prosperous one, she 
was evidently a woman of some means, and thus able to take upon 
herself the additional burden of their support. This would relieve 
them in good part from outside cares and allow them to give 
themselves more fully to the preaching of the gospel. 

Thus far their work had not been hindered in Philippi. The 
people met for preaching either in Lydia's house or by the river 
side. As a result, men and women were converted and a church 
was built up of both sexes. The work went on for many days, 
and little did they dream of the trouble which so suddenly was to 
fall upon them. On their way from Lydia's house, where they 
lodged, they were followed by "a certain damsel possessed with 
a spirit of divination," and in the excited manner of her class she 
kept crying out, 'These men are the servants of the most high 
God, which shew unto us the way of salvation." Paul did not 
care even to have true testimony from such a source, as" wrong 
impressions might follow. He was more or less wearied with her 
continued interruption. He bore the matter for some days, and 
finally commanded the evil spirit to come out of hor. Why he 
did not do this sooner we do not know, but it is probable that 



502 Women of the Bible 

during these many days of preaching, some of the words uttered 
by Paul may have penetrated her dark heart, and when she wanted 
relief it came. As a fortune-teller and diviner, her masters made 
money out of her. With the evil spirit cast out of her, their gains 
are gone and she is of no more value to them than any other 
female slave. Her owners saw the hope of their gains was now 
all gone and they became enraged. Seizing Paul and- Silas, they 
dragged them into the forum, before the city authorities. As it 
was simply a depreciation of the value of private property, it was 
hard to find a charge against these men. Finally they charged, 
"These men are throwing the whole city into confusion ; more- 
over they are Jews and they are attempting to introduce new 
observances which we being Roman citizens cannot legally receive 
or adopt." There was no fair chance for a trial. The word Jew 
was enough in this proud, exclusive Roman city to inflame the 
mob. The lictors were authorized to take the prisoners away and 
beat them. The custom was to do this with rods on the naked 
body. In the catalogue of some of the sufferings which he en- 
dured, Paul says, "Of the Jews five times received I forty stripes 
save one. Thrice was I beaten with rods." At this time their 
garments were rudely torn from their backs; "they 'were hurried 
off and tied by their hand.s to the whipping post in the forum ; and 
whether they vainly called out in Greek to their infuriated enemies, 
'We are Roman citizens,' or, which is far more likely, bore their 
frightful punishment in that grand silence which in moments of 
high spiritual rapture makes pain itself seem painless — in that 
forum of which ruins still remain, in sight of the lowest dregs of 
a provincial outpost and of their own pitying friends, they endured, 
at the hands of those low lictors, those outrages, blows, strokes, 
weals, the pangs and butchery, the extreme disgrace and infamy, 
the unjust infliction of which even a hard-headed and hard- 
hearted Gentile could not describe without something of pathos 
and indignation." 

Nor was this all. The jailor was charged "to keep them 
safely." He, knowing that such an order meant death to him if 
they escaped, thrust them into the inner prison and made fast their 
feet. When we remember what the prisons of England were 
before the days of Howard, we can judge how dreadful they must 
have been in the days of pagan Rome. "The stocks" was an 



Lydia — the First European Convert 503 

instrument of torture as well as of confinement, consisting of a 
huge piece of wood with holes into which the feet were placed in 
such a manner that they were stretched apart so as to cause the 
sufferer great pain. Sometimes the stocks had five holes, two for 
the feet, two for the hands, and one for the neck. Well might 
Paul, while at Corinth, look back with a shudder at this day of 
cruelty, and remind the Thessalonians (I. Thessalonians 2:2) 
how he and Silas "had suffered before, and were shamefully en- 
treated at Philippi." Paul was just recovering from a severe 
sickness. Pie was a Roman citizen, in a Roman city, and entitled 
to Roman protection, and yet untried, and in response to the cry 
of a mob he had been stripped of his clothing, violently beaten, 
and now amid the jeers of the mob was thrust into a stifling and 
hghtless prison, and was to sit there during the long hours of the 
night with his lacerated back paining him and his feet in such a 
condition that he could not sleep. 

But the brave missionaries were not defeated. They rose to the 
occasion and comforted themselves during that long night with 
prayer and song. "They cannot raise their hands nor bend their 
knees in prayer, but they can lift up their hearts and voices to 
heaven. Such is the power of joy in the Holy Ghost." They may 
have sung the Psalms of David, which furnish a storehouse of 
songs for both Jew and Christian, or they may have been singing 
one of the hymns which, Pliny tells us, the Christians were accus°- 
tomed to sing at their meetings before sunrise. Christianity helps 
its votaries to sing even while the flames of persecution are burn- 
ing all around them. The criminals in that prison had never 
heard such songs before, and their ears were keen to listen. The 
songs were sung by the two most innocent men and yet by those 
who had been punished the most. Unexpectedly the singing stops, 
there is a sudden convulsion, the prison walls totter, the doors of 
the jail fly open wide, the prisoners' chains are loosed from the 
staples on the wall. Starting from his sleep the jailor sees the 
prison doors wide open, and concludes his prisoners have fled. 
This means death to him in the morning, and to avoid such igno- 
miny he will take his own life, but Paul cries out to him, "Do "thy- 
self no harm: for we are all here." Quickly securing lights he re- 
leases his prisoners from the stocks, and leading them out from 
their dark dungeon he cried out, "Sirs, what must I do to be 



504 Women of the Bible 

saved?" After what has happened he realizes that he is in the 
presence of men of special power. The apostles, bruised and 
beaten as they have been, make known to him "the word of the 
Lord." Pitying their condition he tenderly washes their lacerated 
backs, and immediately afterward himself and whole household 
are baptized in the faith. He takes these missionaries upstairs 
into his own apartments, places food before them, and rejoices 
greatly with all his house, having believed in God. This looks 
like a sudden conversion, and yet "it would be nothing strange if, 
during the several days or weeks that Paul and Silas had been at 
Philippi, he had heard the gospel from their own lips, and had 
been one among those whom they had urged to repent and lay 
hold of Christ." 

Day dawned and the Roman officials were troubled. They 
sought for some reason to get rid of their prisoners as easily and 
quietly as they could, and therefore sent word to the jailor, "Let 
these men go." The jailor reports the words to Paul, but he 
utterly refuses to go out in any such a clandestine manner. He 
was a Roman citizen, as such he had been grossly insulted, and had 
a right to an apology from these reckless magistrates. "He de- 
manded this acknowledgment, not only to teach them a lesson 
and to inspire the little church with courage, but because his 
rights and his manhood had been violated." He secured his end. 
The officials came and "besought them" and having brought them 
out, "asked them to go away from the city." As soon as they are 
out of prison, they go straight to the home of Lydia. Here they 
meet the believers in Jesus once more, and the number must have 
been increased, for "the brethren" are mentioned, and he speaks 
to them words of comfort and good cheer. Lydia's home is still 
the meeting place. Bruised and beaten and disgraced before the 
public as he has been, she still has a warm welcome for him. The 
apostles know where to go to find sympathy and appreciation, as 
certainly as did Peter, when, having been left by the angel, he 
finds the house of Mary, the mother of Mark. Lydia has a 
warmer love for these missionaries than ever. They have stood 
like Christian soldiers, and their God has vindicated them. Their 
own personal work so auspiciously begun has been ended by a 
Gentile persecution, but the Lord will take care of his own. They 



Lydia — the First European Convert 505 

go to establish other churches elsewhere, while Luke is left behind, 
possibly because he has found an opening for the exercise of his 
art, and because he may be able to guide and strengthen that little 
band of devoted followers in the house of Lydia, for whom there 
are still some persecutions in store. 

There is no doubt that Lydia had much to do in the founding of 
this church at Philippi. The fact that she was the first convert, 
that she was a business woman and had some means, would give 
her special influence. Says Dr. Farrar: 'There are some evi- 
dences that among the Macedonians women occupied a more in- 
dependent position and were held in higher honor than in other 
parts of the world. In his Epistle to the Philippians, St. Paul 
makes prominent mention of two ladies, Euodia and Syntyche, 
who were well known in the Christian community. The part that 
women played in the dissemination of the gospel can hardly be 
exaggerated, and unless it was a mere accident that only women 
were assembled in the proseucha on the first Sabbath at Philippi, 
we must suppose that not a few of the male converts mentioned 
afterwards were originally won over by their influence." While 
this is a personal letter, in the main full of compliment for these 
people, he does not mention any names. He does exhort that they 
"help those women which laboured with me in the gospel, with 
Clement also, and with other of my fellow laborers, whose names 
are in the book of life." 

If Lydia had been living, she most assuredly would have been 
remembered in this Epistle. That she is not mentioned leads to 
the inevitable conclusion that she either had died, or during the 
intervening years since Paul was first there, she may have returned 
to her native city of Thyatira. It is a singular fact in the provi- 
dence of God that Paul was forbidden to go into Asia but sent 
to Macedonia, and yet his first and most important convert here is 
herself a native of Asia. It may not be impossible that this woman 
carried the gospel back to the very country which Paul was not 
allowed to enter. Says Conybeare, "The direct influence of Lydia 
may be supposed to have contributed more to the establishment 
of the church of Thyatira addressed by St. John than to that of 
Philippi." 



506 Women of the Bible 

The opening of Lydia's heart was not her own work, nor yet 
Paul's, but the work of the Lord. Paul preached to her the truth 
of God, the Holy Spirit convicted her of sin, and in response to 
this divine influence she accepted the truth. When we learn who 
she was and what she did, we are not surprised that the Lord 
should distinguish her by his blessing. "It is in agreement with his 
usual ordinance that they who seek shall find. For observe her 
conduct— she was but a sojourner in Philippi, come hither as a 
seller of purple cloth, for which part of Asia was famous. But 
she had not, when she left home, left her religion behind her. She 
had sought out those who had worshiped God, and had gone with 
them to a place of prayer. Neither was she so engrossed with 
worldly affairs as to neglect all other things. She was not in 
Jerusalem or in Judea where the Sabbath would be observed by 
all ; but she was in a heathen city where it would be observed by 
none but Tewish residents. She might therefore have carried on 
her trade and sold her purple cloth; but she had been brought to 
the knowledge of that God, who, when he made the world, blessed 
the Sabbath day and hallowed it ; and therefore we find her not in 
the market, nor offering her purple to the passerby, but joining a 
party which had gone out of the city by a riverside, where prayer 
was wont to be made." 

" Fellow-Laborers With Paul." 

"Those women which labored with me in the gospel, and others of my 
fellow-labourers, whose names are in the book of life."— (Phihppians 4:3.) 

"They lived and they were useful ; this we know 

And naught beside ; 
No record of their names is left to show 

How soon they died. 
They did their work, and then they passed away— 

An unknown band — 
And took their places with the greater host 

In the higher land. 

"And were they young, or were' they growing old, 
Or ill, or well, 
Or lived in poverty, or had much gold, 

'No one can tell. 
One only thing is known of them : they were 

Faithful and true 
Disciples of the Lord, and strong, through prayer, 
To save and do. 



Lydia — the First European Convert 507 

"But what avails the gift of empty fame? 

They lived to God; 
They loved the sweetness of another Name, 

And gladfy trod 
The rugged ways of earth, that they might be 

Helper or friend, 
And in the joy of this, their ministry 

Be spent and spend. 

"No glory clusters 'round their names on earth, 

But in God's heaven 
Is kept a book of names of greatest worth; 

And there is given 
A place for all who did the Master please, 

Although unknown, 
And their lost names shine forth in brightest rays 

Beside his own. 

"Oh, take who will the boon of fading fame ! 

But give to me 
A place among the workers, though my name 

Forgotten be; 
And if within the book of life is found 

My lowly place, 
Honor and glory unto God redound 
For all his grace!" 

— Maridnna Farmingham. 



$f)oefoe===an €avlv Beaconed 



"It is only the teachings and influences of that divine religion which 
made Bethany the center of true social banquetings to the wandering and 
isolated Man of Sorrows, which can keep the soul alive amid the cares, the 
burdens, and the duties which bend down every son and daughter of Adam, 
however gilded may be the outward life. .How grateful then should women 
be to that influence which has snatched them from the pollutions and heart- 
less slaveries of paganism, and given dignity to their higher nature ! It is 
to them that it has brought the greatest boon, and made them trium- 
phant over the evils of life. And how thoughtless, how misguided, how 
ungrateful, is that woman who would exchange the priceless blessings 
which Christianity has brought to her, for those ornaments, those excite- 
ments, and those pleasures which ancient paganism gave as the only solace 
for the loss and degradation of her immortal soul." 

w-Dr, John Lord. 



$j)Qebe— an Carlp Beaconed 



THE word which we translate "deacon" means in general 
"minister," "servant," "attendant." In the New Testa- 
ment it is used to designate the act of ministering or 
serving in a general way, and only three times probably is it used 
in the modern technical sense of deacon. The word was, however, 
soon appropriated to the specific office in the church. We have a 
graphic account of the origin of this "office of help" in the sixth 
chapter of the Acts of the Apostles, where a voluntary com- 
munity of goods was adopted by the Christians of Jerusalem. 
There was a complaint on the part of the Hellenists, or Greek 
Jews, that their widows were neglected in the distribution of food 
and alms. This supposed neglect may have been owing to the 
fact that these widows were not known, being foreigners and back- 
ward, or some little jealousy may have existed between the proper 
Hebrews and their brethren from other lands. At first the apostles 
seemed to have attended to this matter themselves, but as the 
church grew, it became more and more impracticable to care for 
these outward concerns without interfering with their proper 
spiritual work. They asked for the appointment of helpers in this 
work and suggested that seven men be appointed who, being 
chosen by the people, the apostle set them apart by prayer and the 
laying on of hands. 

This example of the church at Jerusalem spread to other 
churches. The probability is that these officers existed in all the 
churches planted by Paul, as he gives to Timothy and Titus special 
instructions in regard to their election and qualifications. Says 
Stanley: The deaconate was the oldest ecclesiastical function, 
the most ancient of the holy orders. It was grounded on the 
elevation of the care of the poor to the rank of a religious service. 
It was a proclamation of the truth that social questions are to take 
the first place amongst religious instructions. It was the recog- 
nition of political economy as a part of religious knowledge." 
Their business primarily was in the care of the poor and sick. 



512 Women of the Bible 

This would soon come to associate with itself a kind of pastoral 
care, for poverty and sickness offer the best opportunity for in- 
struction, exhortation, and consolation. Men of strong faith and 
exemplary piety, of good report, upright, temperate, free from 
covetousness, and well instructed in the faith, were the men 
wanted for this office." 

"Besides this class of helpers, we find in the apostolic church 
the order of female deacons, or deaconesses, which was supplemen- 
tary to the other office and was kept up in the Greek church down 
to the thirteenth century. It is commonly regarded as having orig- 
inated among the Gentile Christians, where women lived in greater 
seclusion, and their intercourse with men was more restricted than 
among the Jews. But aside from any rules of propriety the 
general need required that for special pastoral service, and the 
care of the poor and the sick among the female part of the congre- 
gation, there should be a corresponding office. Here was open to 
women, to whom the apostles forbade any active part in the public 
assemblies, a noble field for the unfolding of their peculiar gifts, 
for the exercise of their love and devotion, without any departure 
from their natural and proper sphere. By means of this office 
they could carry the blessings of the gospel into the most private 
and delicate relations of domes-tic life, and, unseen by the world, 
might quietly and modestly do unspeakable good. To this care 
of the widows of the poor and the sick, as in the case of the male 
deacons; various other services no doubt came to be added, though 
we have no distinctive account of them. Among these we reckon 
the education of orphans, attention to strangers, the practice of 
hospitality, and the assistance needed at the baptism of females." 

The existence of such deaconesses in the apostolic church is 
placed beyond all doubt by the statement of Paul in Romans 16 : 1, 
where he commends to the interest of the Christians at Rome 
Phoebe, and describes her as a deaconess "of the church which is at 
Cenchrea." It is thought by many that Tryphena, Tryphosa, and 
Persis, who are praised (v. 12) for their labor in the Lord, most 
likely served tihe Roman church in the same capacity. These 
officials appear to have been commonly aged and experienced 
widows, sustaining a fair reputation and fitted to guide and in- 
struct those who were young and inexperienced. The Apostolic 
Constitution says, "Ordain a deaconess who is faithful and holy 



Phoebe — an Early Deaconess 513 

for the ministries toward the women." Pliny, in his letter to 
Trajan, says, when speaking of the efforts which he made to ob- 
tain information respecting the opinions and practices of Chris- 
tians, "I deemed it necessary to put two maid servants who are 
called deaconesses to the torture, in order to ascertain what is the 
truth." One of the reasons assigned for this appointment among 
the Gentiles was that women, for the most part, were secluded 
and not permitted to mingle in society with men as is the custom 
now, and therefore it was necessary to appoint aged and experi- 
enced females to instruct the young, to visit the sick, to provide 
for them, and to perform the services which the male deacons per- 
formed for the whole church. 

The Puritans in England in the sixteenth century recognized 
deaconesses as a proper office in the church, as will be seen from 
the following extract concerning their requirements as given by 
Xeal in his History of the Puritans'. "Touching deacons of both 
sorts, namely, men and women, the church shall oe admonished 
what is required by the apostle, and that they are not to choose 
men of custom or course, for their riches, but for their faith, zeal, 
and integrity ; and that the church is to pray in the meantime to be 
so directed that they may choose them that are meet. Let the 
names of those that are thus chosen be published for the next 
Lord's day, and after that their duties to the church, and the 
church's duty toward them ; then let them be received into their 
office, with the general prayers of the whole church." 

'The advantages resulting to a Christian community from such 
an order are too obvious to require exposition. It has been a 
serious misfortune to the church at large that the office had been 
allowed to fall into disuse ; and the widespread institution at the 
present day in the churches of Great Britain and America of ladies' 
district-visiting societies, Dorcas societies, and such like, satisfac- 
torily shows the necessity of practically supplying, to some extent 
at least, this primitive office." (Chamber's Encyclopedia.) 

The mention of Phoebe's name informs us of a Christian 
church at Cenchrea, and this is the only mention we have of it. 
It was probably established by Paul during his stay at Corinth. 
Corinth was located on the middle of the isthmus and had two 
harbors or ports. Cenchrea was on the east about nine miles from 
the city. It opened into the iEgean Sea and was the principal 



514 Women of the Bible 

port ; Lechfeum was the port on the western side. On the isthmus 
between these two ports the Isthmian games were celebrated, to 
which the apostle so frequently makes reference. The first 
bishop of this church is said to have been named Lucius and to 
have been appointed by Paul. The site of this port is now occu- 
pied, we are told, by a single farmhouse. Close to the sea, and 
in part even covered by its waters, are the foundations of a variety 
of buildings, the plans of which may yet be traced, as the walls 
still remain to the height of from two to three feet and a half, 
Some traces of the moles of the port are still visible. In all 
probability the church at this point was not a very large church, or 
other mention would have been made of it elsewhere. We may 
safely infer, therefore, that it was small, and what was customary 
in the matter of female administration in so small a church would 
be found in the larger ; more strictly speaking, it will be found in 
the smaller because already existing in the larger churches and 
mainly copied 'from them. 

This sixteenth chapter of Romans gives us an interesting in- 
sight into the mind and heart of Paul. It shows the strong per- 
sonality of his affection. A philanthropist is especially interested 
in reforms ; a philosopher in the discussion of abstract principles ; 
a friend in those individuals who are dear to him. Here is a, man 
who seems to be all absorbed, on the one hand, in the settlement 
of world-wide problems, and yet is never forgetful or careless 
concerning individuals. After all, his work was very largely a 
personal work, as is shown in his ministry at Philippi, at Athens, 
at Corinth, and at Ephesus. He seemed to come close to men, 
knew them by name, and as such remembered them. He was 
never at Rome up to this time, and yet here are the names of 
twenty-seven persons, men and women residing at Rome, whose 
names are embalmed and will be kept as long as the Book endures. 
Most of them, no doubt, were persons from humble spheres in 
life. How, then, could this- man, so absorbed with important 
themes, having on his shoulders the care of all the churches, still 
keep in memory and be able to name so many of these people ? It 
shows that this grand man, whose mind has been supposed to be 
all logic, was in good part love, and that he was a true pastor and 
personal friend, only anxious for the acceptance of the great prin- 
ciples of truth because they would make men better and develop 




ROMAN CHRISTIANS' READING RAUL'S EPISTLES 



Phoebe — an Early Deaconess 515 

into that glorious manhood found in the man Christ Jesus. In 
this list of names specially worthy of mention is Phoebe, our sister. 
How he knew so many of these people, we are not sure. The 
name of the founder of the church at Rome, if there was a 
founder, has not been kept for us, has not even been handed down 
by tradition. Had any of the apostles been instrumental in its 
start the fact would hardly have failed to be recorded somewhere. 
From references in Paul's Epistles it is evident the majority of the 
church were of Gentile origin. It is most likely it was formed at 
first of private Christians, converted in Palestine, who had come 
from the eastern part of the empire to reside at Rome, or who 
had brought back Christianity from one of their visits to Jerusa- 
lem as "strangers from Rome" at the day of Pentecost. Among 
the immense multitude who gathered at that capital city for 
political and commercial reasons, there would no doubt be repre- 
sentatives of every form of religion which had found a foothold in 
any of the provinces. The probability is that these were persons 
whom Paul had met elsewhere in connection with other churches, 
many of them possibly his own converts. For business or for 
other reasons, they had gone to the capital of the nation, and Paul 
m the multiplicity of his cares, had still remembered their names 
and their present location, and desires to encourage them by this 
personal mention. 

Phoebe, therefore, was a member of the church in Cenchrea, 
probably established by Paul, and had been set apart to the officiai 
position of a deaconess. It is most likely she was a widow of 
consideration and wealth. It seemed to be a requisite to this office 
that^ widows of age and experience should be selected. Paul calls 
her "our sister," showing that she was in good and regular stand- 
ing in the church. She had been a helper to Paul himself in his 
work. This may have been, as with Lydia in opening up her house 
for his preaching services, or his entertainment and in ministering 
to his^ wants. In addition to this, she had been a "succorer of 
many." "The word here used means a patron, a help, and was 
applied by the Greeks to one who presided over an assembly, to 
one who became a patron of others, who aided or defended them in 
their cause, and especially to one who undertook to manage the 
cause of strangers and foreigners before the courts. It was 
therefore, an honorable appellation." She had cared for the sick' 



516 Women of the Bible 

looked after the poor, provided for the strangers, and thus magni- 
fied her office in administering to the wants of many ; a woman 
who was of so much importance at home and who had done so 
much to aid the cause of Christ, had a claim on the respect and 
co-operation of Christians everywhere. 

Paul asks these Christians at Rome to "assist her in whatsoever 
business she hath need of you." He evidently knew that she was 
entirely worthy of their confidence, and would not make any un- 
reasonable demands upon them. What this business was, we do 
not know, as no record has been made for us. Conybeare and 
Howson say, "From the use of the legal terms it would seem that 
the business on which Phoebe was visiting Rome, was connected 
with some trial at law." It was evidently a matter of importance, 
otherwise Paul would not so earnestly have asked them to aid her 
in her plans and to further her business. With the restraints 
thrown around Greek women in those days, it was no small matter 
for a woman to start out alone, to go to so prominent a place, on an 
important mission. The fact that Paul not only so highly com- 
mends her and calls upon those to whom she is going for their 
help, but also entrusts to her a valuable message of his own, shows 
that he had full confidence in her integrity and ability to do any 
work that she undertook. This might have been official business 
which was calling her there; not simply a matter of personal 
interest, although as a woman of property this is not improbable, 
but she may have been sent as a representative of the little church 
at Cenchrea or the greater one in Corinth to look after the interest 
of some of the members or to see that justice was done to those 
she represented. 

Paul is spending three months in Corinth probably from No- 
vember A.D. 57 to February A.D. 58. Before this time he had 
desired to go to Rome, but had been hindered. He would no doubt 
like to look in on this capital city because he is himself a Roman 
citizen. He would be glad also to see the members of the church 
there, many of whom he knew, some of whom, no doubt, were his 
converts and who entertained for him a very warm affection. At 
present he is occupied in gathering funds for the poor saints at 
Jerusalem which he will soon carry to them. He hopes to be 
preserved so that in the near future he may be able to visit the 
church at Rome. To compensate in part for his absence, and to 



Phoebe — an Early Deaconess 517 

prepare them for his visit which he hoped soon to make, he writes 
to them a letter which has been the wonder and admiration of the 
Christian church. The church at Rome was partly Jew and partly 
Gentile, but Paul has learned that this gospel which he has been 
preaching will save any and all, of whatever name or sex or 
nationality. "It is the power of God unto salvation to every one 
that believeth ; to the Jew first and also to the Greek." Strange 
to say, when he did get to Rome it was as a prisoner, taken there 
to secure that justice which he felt would be denied him elsewhere. 

The use of written communications had been familiar to the 
Jews from a very early period. When the Jews became Chris- 
tians they would naturally need advice and counsel on many 
matters in connection with this new faith. It was natural that St. 
James should write to the small Jewish-Christian "synagogues," 
"of the twelve tribes." So when Paul had founded mixed 
churches, partly of born Jews and partly also of heathen-born 
converts, he followed the example of others and wrote to these 
communities when he could not visit them. Such letters would 
seem to those receiving them to be even more effective for their 
instruction than the spoken address. They could be preserved and 
be read and read again, hence were highly valued. Paul places 
as much authority on these as on his spoken words, and required 
some of them to be read before the assembled church. Others 
were a kind of circular letter to be sent from one church to 
another. These letters were probably among the earliest speci- 
mens of a distinctive Christian literature. The story of our Lord's 
life and death up to this date was probably handed down by oral 
tradition rather than by any formal written narratives such as we 
now have. The scriptures of the Old Testament were still the 
basis of proof and to them the apostles continually appealed. 
Jesus had come to fulfill the ancient scriptures and he would soon 
return again when the final end should come. All that seemed 
necessary then were letters which met the questions of the mo- 
ment and cheered the brethren in the midst of present distresses. 

Paul was not disposed to sit down in the quiet of his own 
room and prepare systematic compositions, and if he had been, his 
wandering, busy life would have prevented it. Writing was not 
pleasant to him, for it required a sedentary activity which he did 



518 Women of the Bible 

not enjoy. Much of what he has given us was most likely dic- 
tated to an amanuensis, who was accustomed to the stylus or pen, 
and hence Paul spake only what others put down. He does not 
seem to have paid much attention to fine literary finish or logical 
connection as a literary man would have done. It seems at times 
as if he may have had these letters read over to him when finished, 
and he would insert what seemed to him desirable at the time, 
without any special concern as to the continuity of thought. When 
all was on the sheet which he cared to have there, it was signed 
by himself as "the token" of its being genuine, for false docu- 
ments were circulated by his opponents as coming from him. 
Sometimes he goes as far as he did to the Galatians and adds a 
postscript saying to them, "See with how large letters I have 
written unto you with mine own hand." The roll having been 
completed was duly sealed up, and sent by somexreliable messenger 
to its place of destination. The Roman government had arrange- 
ments for carrying its own official correspondence, but no institu- 
tion like our postal service for carrying private communications. 

When this Epistle to the Romans was completed, it was com- 
mitted to Phcebe, who started with it on her journey to Rome, 
while Paul started toward Jerusalem to turn over his collections 
for the poor. It is a question if any woman ever carried a more 
valuable document. Luther says, "It is the masterpiece of the 
New Testament, and the purest gospel, which can be never too 
much read or studied, and the more it is handled the more pre- 
cious it becomes." Coleridge characterizes it as "the most pro- 
found work in existence." Dr. SchafT asserts that it "present: 
the most complete and systematic view of Paul's theology, and is 
the most important dogmatic portion of the New Testament." 
Phcebe was familiar with Paul and his work at Corinth, and no 
doubt had some adequate conception of the value of the document 
which had been committed to her and for whose transmission to 
the church at Rome she was responsible. How carefully she 
guarded it and how well was her work accomplished, is known 
from the fact that it reached the church at Rome and from it has 
gone forth to bless other churches and other peoples, and to-day 
is everywhere esteemed as the great masterpiece of the apostle's 
writings. 



Phoebe — an Early Deaconess 519 

She no doubt traveled on some merchant vessel sailing from 
Corinth to Rome. When she reached the place she found no mean 
city. Within a circuit of little more than twelve miles, more than 
two millions of people were crowded. With so many people to- 
gether she would find all the contrasts which are seen in a modern 
city, every possible degree of condition between luxury and 
squalor, wealth, and want. "The free citizens were more than a 
million; of these the senators were so few in number as to be 
hardly appreciable ; the knights were not more than ten thousand ; 
the troops quartered in the city may be reckoned at fifteen thou- 
sand ; the rest were the plebs urbana. In ancient Rome the luxury 
of the wealthier classes did not produce a general diffusion cf 
trade. The handicraft employments and many of what we should 
call professions were in the hands of slaves, and the consequence 
was that a vast proportion of the plebs urbana lived on public or 
private charity. Yet were these pauper citizens proud of their 
citizenship, though many of them had no better sleeping place for 
the night than the public porticoes or the vestibules of the temple. 
They cared for nothing beyond bread for the day, the games of 
the circus, and the savage delight of gladitorial shows. The num- 
ber of slaves was perhaps about a million. Every kind of nation- 
ality and religion found its representative in Rome. Rome was 
like London with all its miseries, vices, and follies exaggerated, 
and without Christianity." 

It is commonly supposed that the church at the time Phoebe 
visited it was composed of Jews and Gentiles in about equal por- 
tion. The gospel had therefore to contend here with both Judaism 
and heathenism. So far as we can judge from the names given 
us, the members of the church belonged, for the most part, to the 
middle and lower grades of society. This would be entirely 
natural. Among the less wealthy merchants and tradesmen, 
among the petty officers of the army, among the slaves and f reed- 
men of the imperial palace, whether Jews or Greeks, the gospel 
would first find a firm footing. From there it would gradually 
work upwards and downwards, but the church of Rome especially 
at that time would be no exception to the general rule that "not 
many wise, not many mighty, not many noble" were called. 

As soon as Phoebe reached the city she would find the one 
whom Paul had designated to receive the document which she had 



520 Women of the Bible 

brought and would turn it over to him. If no one had been men- 
tioned by him, she would find through the parties named some who 
could officially receive it. The Sunday after her arrival would be 
a red-letter day in the little community, for the precious epistle 
would be read and many inquiries would be made of Phoebe, who 
had brought it, concerning the writer and the progress of the 
work. They would have a warm appreciation of the man who had 
such an affection for them, and who was standing so earnestly 
for a salvation for all men. Nor would the interest stop with a 
single reading. It would be preserved by some special official, and 
be read time after time as a sacred treasure yielding permanent 
instruction and comfort. Possibly copies would be made from 
it for their own use and the original document be passed on to 
other churches as a kind of circular letter. As far as they could 
afford it, copies would be made for individual members to be kept 
in their own households, for their own personal use, and thus in 
a short time copies of the document would be multiplied. 

This is the last we know of Phoebe, the honored messenger for 
Paul. She had served her own church at Cenchrea faithfully, and 
on account of such faithfulness was promoted to the office of 
"deaconess," the first one of whom special mention has been made. 
Alone she starts on a journey of many miles either on private bus- 
iness for herself or on official business for the church. She re- 
ceives the highest commendation from Paul, which commendation 
has come down to us through the centuries and has made her name 
immortal. She carries to this metropolitan church this magnifi- 
cent treatise on the power of the gospel to save all men, and thus 
brings joy and gladness to this little company of believers, living 
in the midst of a desperately wicked city. Of the blessed work 
she did we shall never fully know. She shows us that there is a 
place in the Christian church for all those who are anxious to 
spend and be spent for the service of the Master. There is a 
service for all those who are willing to serve irrespective of sex 
or nationality. If we are faithful and competent, our colaborers 
will promote us. Whether at work in our own homes, or traveling 
to foreign cities, we shall still be representing the Master and may 
bear his' truth to other hearts waiting for the hope and inspiration 
which we can bring. 



Phoebe — an Early Deaconess 521 

"Let me not die before I've clone for thee 
My earthly work, wha<te'er it may be. 
Call me not hence, with mission unfulfilled; 
Let me not leave my space of ground untilled; 
Impress this truth upon me, that not one 
Can do my portion that I leave undone. 

"Then give me strength all faithfully to toil ; 
Converting barren earth to fruitful soil. 
I long to be an instrument of thine, 
For gathering worshipers unto thy shrine ; 
To be the means one human soul to save 
From the dark terrors of a hopeless grave. 

"Yet most I want a spirit of content 

To work where'er thou'lt wish my labor spent; 

Whether at home or in a stranger's clime, 

In days of joy, or sorrow's sterner time; 

I want a spirit passive, to lie still 

And by thy power, to do thy holy will. 
• 
"And when the prayer unto my lips doth rise, 

Before a new home doth my soul surprise, 

Let me accomplish some great work for thee, 

Subdue it, Lord; let my petition be, 

'Oh, make me useful in this world of thine 

In ways according to thy will, not mine.' " 



> 




FRANCES E. WILLARD 

A Representative Woman of To-Day 



%\t OTomett of *Eo=bap 



"I appeal to all that mass of thought which forms the public opinion by 
which we are governed, to give to the women of the present and of coming 
generations only a fair chance. Let us think of them and deal with them 
as fellow workers with us, it may be in different departments, but at least 
in the one great duty of doing some good on earth. Let us teach them and 
train them so that thev can work with us in that duty. Shall we in doing 
so make them unwomanly, unwifely, unmotherly? No; rather more perfect 
in all womanly gifts and graces, of which those will first enjoy the happi- 
ness who are nearest to them in their homes. We cannot unsex woman by 
cultivating more highly the qualities that*are the especial glory of their sex. 
We shall not make them masterful by teaching them how best they can 
serve. Allowed to onlv expand, allowed to be bestowed on a wider circle 
of sympathies, allowed to seek out a sphere beyond the range of self 
interest, the puritv, charity, and tenderness that is in them will be enhanced 
in strength, and will become to us the richer blessing. Women and men 
will be drawn the closer in the bonds of mutual service, and love and 
comfort, when we seek woman's aid and train them to give their aid, no 
longer only in our idleness and amusements, but in the daily rounds of 
duties which make the noblest portions of our lives." 

m—John Boyd-Kmnear. 



vHje Women of ®o=baj> 



THIS volume would not be complete, in the judgment of the 
author, if it did not call attention to the condition of 
woman in heathen nations, and the exalted position which 
she occupies wherever the teachings of Christianity have entered 
into the hearts and lives of the people. We have already learned 
that among the Hebrews the position of woman was quite high 
compared with that which she occupied in the adjacent nations. 
Miriam heads the bands of women who celebrate in song the 
overthrow of enemies. Deborah appears as a prophetess and a 
judge. The young maiden goes out to meet her father with tim- 
brels and dances. Woman was consulted by high priest and king, 
as in the case of Huldah. "And while the effect of polygamy was 
disastrous, so far as that obtained before the captivity, and while 
it is obvious that the husband, not the wife, was the acknowledged 
head of the household, in independence of whom the wife could 
enter on no engagement, the dower was given to the wife, not with 
her. The modern harem was unknown ; the matron walked abroad 
unveiled ; her husband's home was esteemed her 'rest.' She had a 
large authority in the family, and the grace and force of her char- 
acter and mind were honored, cultivated, and allowed oppor- 
tunity." The Scriptures make many references to the power and 
charm of womanhood. There is perhaps no finer description of 
the wise woman contained in any literature, than is the poem in 
the last chapter of the Book of Proverbs, added to the advisory 
words of the mother of Lemuel. Such a picture could not have 
been possible except among a people where woman was appre- 
ciated and honored. 

And yet the position which woman occupied in the earlier ages, 
even among these Hebrews, was not the true place which she was 
yet to occupy. It was only a partial light, and prophetic of what 
was to be in the noon-day brightness of the sun of Christianity. 
It was infinitely in advance of what was found in other nations. 
It was the earnest of that richer development which should come 



526 Women of the Bible 

when the gospel of Christ should everywhere prevail. It was the 
flower, the rich fruitage of which we see in our own time, and 
which we shall see in more abundant fullness as the principles of 
divine truth more and more have sway over the nations of the 
earth. 

So closely is she identified with the progress of the race that 
you can measure the moral status of any nation by the estimate in 
which woman is held among them. If the nation is given to li- 
cense and sensuality, as in the main is true of the Turkish nation 
to-day, you may be very certain that the appreciation for woman 
is at a very low ebb. If, on the contrary, the nation is on a high 
moral plane, you may be just as certain that the mothers and 
sisters of this nation are looked up to as containing within them 
something of the divine. "It is a fact, significant for the past, 
prophetic for the future, that even as Dante measured his succes- 
sive ascents in Paradise, not by immediate consciousness of move- 
ment, but by seeing an ever lovelier beauty in the face of Beatrice, 
so the race now counts the gradual steps of its spiritual progress 
out of the ancient heavy glooms toward the glory of the Christian 
milennium, not by mechanism, not by cities, but by the ever new 
grace and force exhibited by the woman, who was for ages either 
the decorated toy of man or his despised and abject drudge." 

When Paul went forth to propagate the new faith, he did not 
go into the rude and barbarous districts, but into the cities, the 
very centers of civilization. He was a man of keen intelligence, 
wide experience, conversant with affairs, of liberal tendencies, who 
would draw to his support whatever would tend to open his way 
to the Gentile world. He spent many months in preaching to the 
people of Corinth, one of the most renowned of the Grecian cities. 
Here the Isthmian games were still celebrated. It was an intel- 
lectual as well as a political center of Greece. It was renowned 
throughout the world for its commercial activity, its learning, and 
its fondness for research. It was a fearfully sensual city,, so much 
so that even the converts of Christianity were not wholly deliv- 
ered from it. The letters of Paul reveal to us the fact that they 
defended their profligacy on the ground of liberty; the supper of 
the Lord was degraded to a drunken carousal ; the feasts of the 
heathen still drew to them the Christian disciples; one of the 
members had contracted an incestuous marriage, and many of his 



The Women of To-day 527 

fellows condoned his wickedness. We are tempted to ask, If this 
was the condition of those who had been lifted up to a higher 
moral plane, what must have been the preceding life from which 
the) r had emerged, and which still clung to them with such attrac- 
tive power? 

With such a condition of morals, it would not be hard to infer 
what must have been the moral status of woman. When the 
literature of Greece was most elaborate, and when its civilization 
was at the highest, women were excluded from public affairs. Al- 
most all their great men, not only so notorious a libertine as Alci- 
biades, but even Themistocles and Pericles were impure. Plato 
lepresents a state as wholly disorganized, where wives were on an 
equality with their husbands. He provides in his "Republic" "that 
the wives of these guardians are to be common, and their children 
also common, and no parent is to know his own child, nor any child 
his parent." Only unchaste women were permitted to attend 
public lectures and be on intimate terms with artists and scholars. 
In the true sense of the term, the Greeks knew little of family life. 
A Greek citizen was at home but little of his time, and sought his 
comfort elsewhere than at his own hearth. "Is there a human be- 
ing," asks Socrates of one of his friends, "with whom you talk less 
than with your wife ?" Demosthenes says without the least embar- 
rassment, "We have heterae [prostitutes] for our pleasure, wives 
to bear us children and to care for our household." It is easy to 
understand why there are so few noble women in Grecian history, 
and why such prominence is given to those of unchaste life. The 
latter attended lecture rooms, wrote books, became the companion 
of statesmen, poets, and philosophers. Even Socrates went to hear 
Aspasia. While the modest but intelligent housewife sank into 
oblivion, the courtesan became the subject of history. "They gave 
themselves as models for images of the gods. Phryne, the courte- 
san who promised the Thebans to rebuild their walls if they would 
write on them in golden letters, 'Alexander destroyed them, 
Phryne rebuilt them,' served Praxiteles as a model for his re- 
nowned statue of the Cnidian Aphrodite. Thus the Greeks lifted 
their hands to public prostitutes when they prayed in their temples, 
and the extent of their shamelessness is sufficiently shown by the 
fact that this very Phryne, at the festival of Poseidon in Eleusis, 
appeared as Aphrodite Anadyomene, and having laid aside her 



528 Women of the Bible 

garments and unloosed her hair, descended into the sea before the 
eyes of applauding Greece." A daughter, at Athens, inherited 
nothing from her father. She lived in the strictest seclusion until 
marriage ; after that she could not on her own account conclude 
any bargain. What a man did, even through the advice or at the 
request of a woman, was treated by the law as of no effect At 
Syracuse, no free woman w r as allowed to go out after night except 
for adultery, nor even by day except as attended by a female serv- 
ant. Her glory was in having no one speak of her. According to 
Plato, "a woman's virtue is to order her home, to keep what is in 
door, and to obey her husband." 

In the Roman Empire this degradation of morals came more 
gradually and at a later period. The women who poured their 
ornaments into the treasury, or sent their husbands and sons gladly 
to endure suffering and, if need be, death, were especially es- 
teemed. Nothing indecent was to be said in their presence, and 
their testimony had equal weight in the courts. A writer on 
farming who lived in the first century, thus speaks of the home 
life of the Romans : "There was then the highest reverence, 
joined with concord and with industry. There was no division of 
interests to be seen in the house, nothing that the husband or the 
wife claimed to belong to either of them in their own right. All 
was looked upon as common to both." But there was another 
side to all this. The Roman family was based on the lordship of 
the head of the family, which embraced the power to sell wife or 
child into slavery, and to inflict on them death itself. As the true 
worth of the individual became known, women rebelled against 
this tyrannical power. They refused to be married by any of the 
old forms by which the wife passed under the power of her hus- 
band. They substituted marriage by simple contract, which either 
party might revoke. The rule by which a wife became a hus- 
band's property, if found among his possessions for a day and a 
year, was evaded by returning to their father's home for three days 
of each year. 

This tended to a dissolution of social ties. It was greatly 
aggravated by the flowing into Rome of the riches of the con- 
quered world. As luxury prevailed, chastity and modesty per- 
ished. Marriages were easily effected, and as readily dissolved. 
Inclination or affection did not seem to have much to do with the 



The Women of To-day 529 

matter. For the man, marriage was simply a financial transaction ; 
for the maiden, it was the means of escape from the limits of the 
nursery and of becoming free. 'There are women who count 
their years not by the number of consuls, but by the number of 
their husbands," says Seneca. The matron whom Jerome de- 
scribes as attending the funeral of her twenty-fourth husband, 
must have gone even beyond that. They allow themselves to be 
divorced," mocks Juvenal, "before the nuptial garlands have 
faded." Friends exchanged wives, and it was not dishonorable to 
employ the name of friendship for the purpose of seducing a 
friend's wife. "Whoever has no love affairs is despised," said 
Seneca. "Not only did the theater and the circus offer oppor- 
tunities for beginning and continuing amorous intrigues, the tem- 
ples were not too holy nor the brothels too foul for them. It came 
to pass (a more horrible symptom of demoralization can scarcely 
be imagined) that ladies of high birth had themselves enrolled 
in the police register of common prostitutes, in order that they 
might abandon themselves entirely to the*most wanton excesses." 
Children were a burden. Infanticide was not regarded as a crime. 
Mothers were more concerned about their toilets, or the gossip of 
the day, than the education of their children. Marriage fell into 
contempt, and a law was passed imposing fines and taxes on those 
who remained unmarried beyond a certain age. 

Of course there were noble exceptions to all this. There were 
faithful marriages and good wives, but domestic life was dread- 
fully corrupted. Where lewdness and indecency had become re- 
spectable, the domestic virtues could not prevail. A dreadful 
picture of the corruption of the times has been given by the apostle 
Paul in the earlier chapters of the Book of Romans, and for every 
line of that frightfully dark picture, historic proofs can be ad- 
duced. : 'We know not which is the more shocking, the effrontery 
with which sensuality came forth, or the cunning with which it 
sought what was more and more unnatural. Even the temples 
promoted lewdness, the priestesses were prostitutes, and shameful 
to relate, this was esteemed and practiced by the heathen as a part 
of religious worship." 

This was the degradation which woman had reached in the 
most cultured nations of antiquity, where art and literature flour- 
ished, where lived men of literary culture and power, where were 



530 Women of the Bible 

laid deep and strong the foundations of civil law. If this was her 
condition among the highest cultured nations of the earth, what 
must it have been among the more barbarous people ? The worth 
of man as man, a worth shared by all, even by foreigners and 
barbarians, was a truth hidden from the ancient world, and which 
only came to light when Christianity made its advent. Where no 
true value attached to man as man, there could be no true appre- 
ciation of woman. 

This is the low moral condition which Christ found when he 
came to this earth. As soon as the religion which he taught began 
to be believed and practiced, the position of woman began to im- 
prove. From that day to this, with here and there a temporary 
backward eddy, here has been continuous progress. Woman never 
occupied so honorable a position as she occupies to-day, wher- 
ever the gospel of Christ has been accepted. The record of history 
shows that the change began with the very beginning of his minis- 
try. "Women had been his devoted disciples during his personal 
ministry on earth, among them the wife of Chuza, the sisters at 
Bethany, the woman who, because she loved much, had been bid- 
den by him to go in peace. Women had been the first converts in 
Europe ; Lydia at Philippi ; the honorable women at Thessalonica ; 
the woman named Damaris — another Athenian Magdalene she 
may have been — upon Mar's Hill ; the Priscilla whose name is 
more than once placed before her husband's, as if to indicate a 
certain conceded and beautiful leadership in her genius and spirit. 
As soon as congregations of Christian disciples began to be 
formed in any proud and dissolute city, women began to be rec- 
ognized as effective in definite and important ministerial functions. 
Salutations were addressed to them, epistles even, by the foremost 
apostles ; and that faith which was afterward radiantly shown by 
their sisters in the spirit in the arena and at the stake, had been 
discovered and commended in themselves before the persecuting 
frenzies arose. The grandmother Lois, the mother Eunice, were 
remembered by Paul in his prison at Rome, when his chained 
hand could not trace his own words. The whole church, to the 
thought of the disciples, took the form of a woman, radiant and 
crowned, on earth and in heaven." 

The effect of all this could hardly be measured. It would put 
fresh hope and inspiration even into the humbler classes. The 



The Women of To-day 531 

instructions given, the hopes created, the new ideals placed before 
women in the higher social ranks, led them to seek a new experi- 
ence. Marriage became a covenant for life, in which she was 
freed from the dominion and power of the former severe law, and 
placed upon an equality with her husband. Christ's whole dealing 
with the women of his age was one of liberation ; it was to free 
her from the bondage of a low ideal, and vicious life, and to lift 
her to the high plane which became the children of God. The 
position to which he thus assigned her has never been lost, and 
never will be lost until the end of time. 

It is true the early followers of the Master were limited in 
their vision and did not come into that clear knowledge of woman's 
position which we have to-day. The age in which they lived was 
one of terrible wickedness. As the church made headway in the 
world, there was a disposition to mark the opposition of the 
Christian to the sensual world about him by outward signs. After 
a time a great value was laid on celibacy, and women were looked 
upon as an element of temptation rather than as co-workers in 
moral reform. Christian writers began to speak of marriage as 
required by human frailty, and the family relation as hindering our 
spiritual energies. Augustine recommended a universal celibacy. 
In the fifth century husbands and wives began to renounce each 
other in order to lead a monastic life. As the church lost its 
spiritual power in the early centuries, it yielded more and more to 
the influence of its environment. The Latin church went so far 
as to enact the celibacy of the clergy, and severed the marriage 
relation in the case of priests and bishops. What was thus 
intended for an uplifting force to bring mankind nearer God, 
actually drove men downward. It taught the common people to 
despise the ties which bound them to wife and children. There 
were no doubt good men among these priests and monks, and 
good women among these nuns, but after all, this was not the 
liberty which Christ came to give nor the honor which he placed 
upon the woman in the family and out of it. Woman's true place 
in the family must be found and kept, if we would preserve for 
her the purity and freedom which God gave her. We must break 
away from these perversions of the truth and these superstitious 
notions. This was done by one who had become a monk by his 
own free will, but who hated the system when he saw how it came 



532 Women of the Bible 

between men and God ; how it unfitted men to bear rule in the 
household, the nation, and the church ; who at forty-three years of 
age tore himself away from this unnatural life, took for his wife 
one who had escaped from the same bondage, and thus laid the 
foundation of the household life of our Protestant clergy. Even 
at this day, we can scarcely conceive the wonderful work he did 
in thus releasing woman from the slavery which a corrupt church 
was beginning to fasten upon her. 

In spite of all this narrowing and restricting life, this was 
a vast improvement on what had preceded it. Even in these dark 
ages, women as teachers, mothers, abbesses, had prominent place 
and influence. They taught in the great schools that were estab- 
lished. They built churches, endowed convents, and opened their 
castles to the poor. Even in the days of chivalry, when the knight 
gave up his life to defend the weak and to champion women against 
their oppressors, he held before him a noble ideal which gave 
promise of a still brighter day. The tendency of Christianity 
always has been, while recognizing the sex in souls, to give to 
women larger opportunities and more effective control of all instru- 
ments for work, to put her side by side with, man, in front of all 
the great achievements, letters, arts, humanities, missions ; "as at 
the majestic south portal of Strassburg Cathedral the figure of 
Sabina, maiden and architect, faces the figure of Erwin of Stein- 
bach, and though the old traditions of law are hard to change, the 
entire movement of modern society is toward the perfect enfran- 
chisement of the sex, to which the religion brought by Jesus gave, 
at the outset, preeminent honor." 

The emancipation which has thus been partially accomplished, 
and which will be more completely realized in the coining years, 
was not due to the fact that Christ prescribed any civil code con- 
cerning woman's sphere, but by the working out of a moral force 
which he introduced into the world. The foundations of the sys- 
tem of Christian ethics are, love to God and love to man ; and this 
last embraces all of mankind, regardless of age, nationality, creed, 
or sex. Under this law those who are weak and helpless are to be 
special objects of care. Woman, who had hitherto been the slave 
of a masculine tyranny in the family and elsewhere, now became 
an object of special regard. New liberties were granted unto her; 



The Women of To-day 533 

new spheres of action, new opportunities for usefulness were 
opened up, and her character thereby became exalted. 

Because of this, woman never stood so high as she stands 
to-day. She is no longer the absolute slave of her brother man, 
but in God's sight stands upon an equality with him. She has the 
same origin, the same general nature, is gifted with the same 
immortal powers, and destined for the same eternity. She is an 
individual, and responsible to God for that individuality. Old 
laws have been repealed, old customs changed, old conceptions 
modified, and she to-day takes her place beside her brother as his 
best friend and helper. The different avocations and professions 
of life are, in the main, open to her, and she may enter in and 
possess them. She may select for herself such work in life as her 
tastes and talents will warrant. The prejudices of the few are 
steadily giving away before the increased power of the truth. This 
has fittingly been called "the woman's century," because along all 
lines she has made more rapid progress than ever before. 

The blessed present gives promise of a glorious future when 
the knowledge of God shall cover the earth as the waters do the 
face of the deep. Women to-day are occupying the majority of 
the seats in our churches. They are doing the largest part of the 
benevolent work of the church. They are actively concerned in 
the charitable and moral reform work of the day. Wherever the. 
churches have opened mission fields, women have been the first to 
press themselves to the front, and have done the most efficient 
service. They are waiting, as soon as the way shall be opened, 
to enter into our political life, and to help clean the Augean stables 
of our corrupt politics. They are a wonderful force for good in 
helping to bring back a lost world to its allegiance to the King of 
kings. When he shall reign supreme whose right it is to rule, and 
when his truth shall enter fully into the lives of men, into the 
customs of society, and into the laws of the land, then shall woman 
occupy that exalted position for which God designed her, and from 
which she has been kept by a false public sentiment and by the 
ignorance and tvrannv of her brother. May God hasten the day. 

"The yesterday of woman is one long story of hardship, suffer- 
ing, and wrong. Her year has been mostly winter, never more 
than May. In ignorance, rather than wantonness, has she been 
oppressed, and men have wronged themselves in wronging her, 



534 Women of the Bible 

and have wronged each other quite as cruelly as woman, often- 
times. But her to-morrow is full of promise and of cheer. She 
has everything to hope for, and nothing to fear but herself. 
Already the day of her deliverance dawns, bringing untold privi- 
leges and joys, with their duties and trusts. Let her prepare to 
meet her to-morrow, which cometh faster than she dreams, and 
even now flushes the mountains with purple and gold, and lifts the 
thick mists from the valleys and makes all things new." 

Wanted — Women. 

"Good women are God's sentinels ; in the darkest of earth's night. 
They hold with stout hearts, silently, life's outpost toward the light ; 
And at God Almighty's roll-call, 'mong the hosts that answer 'Here!' 
The voices of good women sound strong and sweet and clear. 

"Good women are brave soldiers ; in the (thickest of the fight 
They stand with stout hearts, patiently, embattled for the right; 
And though no blare of trumpet or roll of drum in heard, 
Good women, the world over, are the army of the Lord. 

"Good women save the nation, though they bear not sword or gun. 
Their panoply is righteousness, their will with God's is one; 
Each in her single person revealing God on earth, 
Knowing that so, and only so, is any life of worth. 

"Don't talk of woman's weakness ! I tell you that this hour 
The weight of this world's future depends upon their power; 
And down the track of ages, as Time's flood-tides are told, 
The level of their height is marked by the place «that women hold." 



Snbex to Hint of SUuatrationa 



OLD TESTAMENT. 

Head of Eve 10 

Hagar 46 

Rebekah and Eliezer ■ • . . 62 

Jacob and Rachel 82 

Finding of Moses • • . . 104 

Ruth and Naomi 127 

Deborah 147 

Jephthah's Daughter 167 

Delilah and Samson 186 

Saul and Witch of Endor • • 205 

Dedication of Samuel 223 

Queen of Sheba before Solomon 258 

Ahab and Elijah 278 

Elisha Raising Son of Shunammke . 298 

Esther Denouncing Haman • • 318 

Judith 334 

NEW TESTAMENT. 

The Master 340 

The Annunciation 362 

St. John and Mary 381 

Christ's Farewell to His Mother 384 

Mater Purissima 388 

Head of John the Baptist 402 

Christ and the Samaritan Woman 417 

Christ With Mary and Martha • • 433 

Mary Magdalene 448 

The Three Marys 462 

Christ and the Three Marys • • 470 

The Angel at the Tomb 451 

Dream of Pilate's Wife 483 

Roman Christians Reading Paul's Epistles 515 

Paul and Lydia at the Riverside 498 

Frances E. Willard 522 



General Snfcex 



Abraham. 

Leaving Ur of the Chaldees 23 

Starts for Egypt 24 

Separating from Lot 26 

Commanded to Offer Isaac 31 

Buys Cave of Machpelah 34 

Concerned for Marriage of Isaac 55 

Abel. 

Body of — What Became of It 17 

Abigail, 

Story of Her Life ..... . 239 

Visits David with Provisions 244 

Becomes David's Wife 247 

Ahab. 

Marries Heathen Queen 270 

Meets Elijah 273 

Covets Naboth's Vineyard 277 

Sold Himself to Work Wickedness 280 

In Battle With Benhadad 281 

Ahaziah. 

Son of Ahab Succeeds Him 282 

Ahasuerus. 

The King, Could Not Sleep 322 

Annunciation, The 

By the Angel Gabriel 348 

Angels. 

Frequent Ministrations of 374 

Arabia. 

Received Christianity Early 262 

Woman's Position In 263 

ASHER. 

Tribe of Asher 380 

Anna. 

The Last Prophetess 387 

Description of Her 391 

Spoke With the Spirit of God 392 

Gave Thanks 393 



~538 General Index 

.Antipas and Archelaus. 

Story of 399 

Antipas (Herod) 

Takes His Brother's Wife 401 

Rebuked by John the Baptist 402 

Puts John In Prison 403 

Takes His Life. 406 

Baal. 

Chief God of the Canaanites 141 

Nature of His Worship 271 

Barak. 

Urged by Deborah to Save the People , - 147 

Biography. 

Variety in Bible 179 

Boaz. 

His Kindly Treatment of Ruth 129 

Acknowledges Ruth's Legal Claim • • 133 

Buckley, Dr. 

Quotation from "Faith Healing." 203 

Cain. 

Anger of 16 

Canaanites. 

To Be Driven Out by the Jews. 139 

Camels. 

First Notice of Riding Them 57 

Child. 

First Born 14 

Courting. 

The Ancient Way 60 

Consequences. 

Not Always Foreseen , 66 

Complaints. 

Of Israel Heard 103 

David's Life. 

A Mixed One 236 

Dance. 

Fashionable — to be Avoided , 407 

Death. 

First One a Martyr to Religion » 15 



General Index 539 

Deborah. 

People Come to Her for Counsel 145 

Called of God as Were Other Judges 147 

Advises Barak What to do 148 

Song of 154 

Delilah. 

Entices Samson 186 

Learns the Secret of His Strength 187 

Eve. 

Her Creation Described 6 

How Received by Adam 7 

Nature of Their Relations 8 

The First Human Sinner 10 

Eyes Opened ; In What Sense 11 

Agony at Murder of Her Son 18 

Eliezer. 

Seeking a Wife for Isaac 55 

His Reception by Nahor 57 

Takes God Into His Plans 58 

The Working Out of His Plans 59 

Anxious to Get Back to His Master 59 

Elimelech. 

Driven to Moab by Famine 118 

Soon Died in the Land of Plenty 119 

Esau. 

Marries Fleathen Women 64 

Plans to Kill His Brother 67 

Hears of Jacob's Return 88 

Elkanah. 

Story of 119 

Flis Tenderness to His Wife 221 

Experiences. 

After the Fall of Man , 13 

Eli's 

Indiscreet Rebuke 223 

Ethbaal. 

Father of Jezebel 269 

Elijah. 

Meets King Ahab 273 

Afraid of Jezebel 273 

Another Meeting With Ahab ' 280 

Esther. 

Hears Mordecai's Appeal 321 

Asks King and Haman to Banquet 321 

Denouncing Haman 323 

Author of Book Unknown 326 



• 



540 General Index 

Eli s ha. 

Raises the Shunammite's Child 300 

Europe. 

Paul Introduces the Gospel Into 497 

Gates of City. 

Places of Legal Business ' 134 

Hagar. 

Offered by Sarah as Secondary Wife 27 

Driven Away v 31 

Where She Came From 39 

Flees for Her Life 42 

Met by an Angel and Sent Back 43 

In Distress Because of Thirst 48 

Takes a Wife for Her Son in Egy?pt 49 

Used by Paul as a Figure in Galatians . .• •. 51 

Hannah; 

Her Intense Desire for a Child 222 

Eli's Indiscreet Rebuke 223 

Her Prayer Answered 224 

Her Song of Thanksgiving 226 

Farewell to Her Boy • • 229 

Haman. 

Denounced by Esther 323 

His Wicked Decree Counteracted 324 

Hemans, Mrs. 

Poem Describing Hannah's Journey 225 

Historical Personages. 

Not Unlike Ourselves 235 

Hospitality. 

Taught in the Scriptures 305 

To be Shown God's Children 307 

Herods. 

Account of the 397 

Herodias. 

Plans Death of John the Baptist 404 

Isaac. 

Birth of 29 

Dies near Gerar 64 

Ishmael. 

At First Received as Promised Heir . 28 

Offends Sarah 46 

And His Mother in Great Need 47 

Prophecy Concerning Him Fulfilled 50 



General Index 541 

Israelites. 

At the Red Sea 105 

Israel. 

Its Dreadful Condition 143 

Inward Sight. 

A Story from Zschokke 209 

Jael. 

The Murderer of Sisera ; 153 

Jacob. 

Flees for His Life 75 

The Heavens are Opened to Him 78 

Meets Rachel 80 

Contracts to Serve for Her 82 

Deceived hx Laban 83 

The Younger Daughter Offered H im 84 

Pursued by Laban 87 

Prepares to Meet Esau 88 

Jezebel. 

Her Earh- Training i 270 

Made 1 srael a Nation of Idolaters 273 

Secures Vineyard for Ahab 278 

Morallv Depraved 279 

Her Awful Death 285 

Elijah's Prophecy Concerning Her Fulfilled 287 

Jezreel. 

Battlefield of Palestine 149 

Jephthah. 

Family Record 161 

Driven from H ome 162 

His Method of War 164 

Making a Vow ; Its Meaning 166 

Did He Offer His Daughter ? 171 

Jehu. 

Made King 284 

Jews. 

Authorized to Defend Themselves 325 

John the Baptist. 

Early Home Training 351 

Beheaded in Prison 415 

Judith. 

The Story Given 333 

Offered to Help Her Nation 334 

Starts on Her Dangerous Journey 336 

She Beheads Holofernes 337 

Her Song of Rejoicing 359 

Book of — Not Canonical 331 

Book of — Probably a Romance 332 



542 General Index 

Judges. 

Period of — Heroic Age in Israel 141 

Joshua. 

Defeats the Confederacy 143 

Lazarus. 

Death and Burial 434 

Resurrected 436 

Lydia. 

Dwelling at Philippi 500 

Converted and Baptized 501 

Helps to Establish Church _ 505 

Mary — Mother of Christ. 

Apochryphal Account of Her 357 

Where She Lived 361 

A Devout Jewess 362 

Visited by the Angel 362 

Origin of the Magnificat • • 367 

Why Go to Bethlehem 368 

A New Danger 370 

At the Passover 372 

At the Wedding in Cana 375 

At the Cross 380 

Made Her Home with John 382 

Mary and Martha, T3E Bethany Sisters. 

Contrast in Their Characters 429 

Death Enters Their Home 431 

Christ Notified 432 

"Thy Brother Shall Rise Again" 435 

Christ Anointed by Mary 43/ 

A Home for Christ • • 441 

Mary Magdalene. 

Slander Attaching to Her Name 445 

Her Disease Not Known 448 

A Devoted Disciple 450 

Probably Witnessed Christ's Death 451 

First W tness of His Resurrection 452 

Announced the Resurrection 454 

Macbeth. 

Did Witch of Endor Suggest It? 203 

Mary, Wife of Clopas. 

A Sister of the Mother of Christ 457 

Prominent in Last Week of Christ's Life 458 

Entered the Sepulcher 462 

One of the First to Sec the Risen Lord , 463 

Mary, Mother of Mark. 

Sister to Barnabas 467 

What Is Known of Her 471 



General Index 543 

Record Given in Acts XII 472 

Prayers in Her Home for Peter 473 

Her Home a Center of Evangelism 476 

Marriage. 

Jewish Customs in Ruth's Time ' 130 

Earl}- Customs 82 

Man. 

Origin of 3 

Male Children. 

Destroyed in Egypt 98 

Miriam. 

Traditions Concerning 95 

Watching Her Brother • • 100 

Led the Women in Thanksgiving 105 

A Leader in Rebellion Against Moses 107 

Died at Kadesh • • HO 

Messiah. 

Announced b} r Samaritan Woman 420 

Mother. 

The First One 15 

Mordecai. 

Honored by the King • • 323 

Is Made Prime Minister 324 

Moses. 

Birth of 95 

Why Was He In Danger? 96 

The Mother's Effort to Save Him 99 

How Taught and Trained 103 

God Sends Him Forward 104 

His Hard Trial 108 

How the Lord Defended Him '. 109 

Musicians 

In the Temple Service 468 

Music. 

Among the Early Christians 416 

Name. 

Given to Eve by Adam 11 

Nabal. 

His Treatment of David 243 

His Superior Wife 240 

Naomi. 

Her Two Sons Marry 120 

Their Early Death • - 121 

She Starts Back Home 121 



544 General Index 

The Daughters-in-Law Start With Her •. 122 

Learns of Her Kinsman Boaz 129 

Plans for Ruth's Marriage . 130 

Necromancy, in Bible Times 204 

Paul. * 

Insisted on His Rights as a Citizen 513 

Interested in Church at Rome 514 

Went Into the Cities to Preach 526 

Found Moral Status of Woman Low 527 

Paradise. 

Where Located 4 

Nature of the Place 5 

Driven from 12 

Papyrus. 

Nature of 99 

Providence. 

Not to be Forced 66 

Seen in Preservation of Moses 102 

Polygamy. 

Discouraged by Moses 112 

Priesthood. 

Corrupted in Christ's Time 344 

Peter. 

Released from Prison 4/2 

Poem. 

Oldest on Record by a Woman 154 

"Fellow Laborers With Paul" 506 

Pilate. 

What He Might Have Done 488 

Not Saved from Political Disaster 489 

Philippe 

Paul's Reception at 499 

Lydia Dwelt Here 500 

Lydia Converted and Baptized at 501 

Paul and Silas in Prison 512 

Church Helped by Lydia 515 

Phoebe. 

An Early Deaconess 511 

Deaconesses Among the Puritans 513 

What is Known of 513 

Carries Paul's Letters to Rome 515 

How She Traveled 519 

How Received 520 



General Index 545 

Queen of Sheba. 

Traditions Concerning Her 253 

The Journey She Took 257 

What She Wished to Learn • • . 258 

Was She Weaned from Her Idolatry ? 262 

Strength of Character ; • • 264 

Commended by Christ 265 

Rebekah. 

Her Meeting and Treatment of Eliezer 59 

Listens to Eliezer's Story . 60 

Starts Back With Eliezer 62 

Meets Isaac for the First Time 63 

Gives Birth to Esau and Jacob 63 

Her Part in Jacob's Trouble 65 

Sends Jacob Away 67 

Farewell to Jacob — A Poem 68 

Rachel. 

Meets Jacob at the Well 79 

Jacob Serves Seven Years for Her 83 

Is Married to Jacob • • 84 

Dies in Childbirth 89 

Her Story One of Human Interest 91 

Randolph, Dr. 

What He Says of Spiritualism 211 

Ruth. 

Origin of the Story 117 

Starts Back With Naomi ". . . 122 

She and Naomi Reach Bethlehem 125 

Looking for Work 127 

Kindly Treated in Field of Boaz ....•• 128 

Urges Her Claim on Boaz 132 

Becomes Ancestor of the Messiah 135 



Rome. 

How Slid Came to Rule Israel 481 

Sarah. 

Leaving Home 23 

Denied by Her Husband 25 

Did She Know of the Call to Offer Isaac ? 31 

Deals Harshly With Hagar 41 

Orders Hagar Cast Out • • 44 

Death and Burial of 33 



Saul. 

What Led Him to Seek the Witch of Endor ? 200 

Did He Really See Samuel?. . .- 2)2 

Slavery. 

In Time of Moses 97 



546 General Index 

Sacrifices. 

Could Jephthah Offer One? 172 

What Did He Likely Do ? 173 

Samson. 

Birth Foretold 180 

Wedding Feast and the Attending Troubles 182 

His Plan of Revenge 183 

Destruction of Philistines • • 184 

Milton's Statement Concerning Him 185 

Dallying With Temptation 186 

Confessing Source of Strength 187 

Bound With Chains 190 

His Destruction of the Temple and Himself 193 

Samuel. 

Pid He See Saul at Endor ? 202 

Called of the Lord .... 231 

Samaria, Woman of. 

At the Well 416 

Conscience Awakened 417 

Her Religious Belief 419 

Announces Christ's Messiahship 421 

She Reports to Her People 421 

Treated Courteously by Christ 427 

Sheba 

Its Location 254 

Simeon. 

Waiting at Gate of Temple 3S9 

Spiritualists. 

Claim of 210 

Shoe. 

Relation to Wedding Ceremonies 135 

Sisera. 

His Dreadful Defeat 151 

Killed by a Woman 152 

Songs. 

Heard in Prison • 503 

Souls. 

Christ's Method of Saving Souls 423 

Sinners. 

Christ's Kindly Treatment of Them 446 

•Shiloh. 

Early Prominence and Present Condition 218 

Solomon. 

Entertained Queen of Sheba 260 



General Index 547 

Shunem. 

Description of 293 

Elisha's Visits to 294 

The Woman Residing There 295 

Sychar. 

Description of 414 

Troas. 

Paul's Visit There 494 

Paul Sees a Vision 495 

Vow. 

Not an Unusual Thing 166 

Nature of Jephthah's 167 

How Did His Daughter View It ? 168 

Well — Jacob's. 

Christ Sits By It 415 

Women. 

High Honor Paid Them by Moses 112 

Spake with the Spirit of God 392 

Influence of Bad 2?6 

Woman — Shunammite. 

Son Promised to Her 296 

His Death ; Her Trip to Carmel 298 

Why Gehazi and Staff Failed Her 302 

Elisha Restores Her Child 303 

Elisha Offers to Further Aid Her ' 304 

Women of To-day. 

Woman's High Standing Among the Hebrews 523 

Her Position Determines a Nation's Standing 526 

Low Conditions in Greece — Rome 527 

Bad Effect of Luxury 528 

Marriage Becomes a Financial Transaction 529 

The Gospel Everywhere Elevates Woman 530 

Woman. 

Her Low Standing in Cultured Nations 529 

Christ Found Social Life Rotten 528 

Aided by the Gospel 530 

Prominent Position in the Early Church 532 

Never Held as High as To-day 533 

Her Great Emancipation Yet to Come 593 

Wife. 

Finding One for Isaac 60 

Witch of Endor. 

Where Did Saul Find Her? 201 

Had the Witch Power to Call Up Samuel ? 216 

How Shall the Story be Interpreted .- 205 



548 General Index 






Wife of Pilate. 

Christ Arraigned Before Pilate 483 

Pilate's Temporizing Policy \\ 484 

His Wife Notifies Him of Her Dream .../... 485 

A Tradition That She Was a Christian 486 

How Pilate Died •. 490 

Worship. 

Does Not Depend on Place 419 

Zacharias. 

H'is Relations to the Priesthood 345 

Saw a Vision 345 

A Son Promised Him 347 

On His Way to Hebron 348 

Dumb for Nine Months 350 






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